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THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



desert Calendar 



Jan. 28-Peb, 3 — Open golf tournament, 
Tucson, Arizona. 

Tan. }I-Feb. 1 — Sierra club official hike, 
Rabbit peak, Santa Rosa mountains. 
Meet at Borrego, California. Bill 
Henderson, leader, 

Jan. 31-Feb. 1— Second annual Thunder- 
bird Ski meet, Arizona Snow bowl, 
Flagstaff, Arizona. 

Feb. 6-7— First annual Carrot Festival of 
Imperial Valley, Holtville, Calif. 

Feb. 7-8 — Sierra club, All-American ca- 
nal camp and desert hike in Oro- 
copia - Chocolate mountains area. 
Camp in desert wash about four 
miles from Mecca. Jim Gorin and 
Russell Hubbard, leaders. 

Feb. 8— Snow Basin giant Slalom, Snow 
Basin, Utah. 

Feb. 9 — Intermounrain jumping cham- 
pionships, Ecker Hill, Utah, 

Feb. 10-15— Livestock show, Tucson, 
Arizona. 

Feb. U-I5~Riverside County Fair and 
Dare Festival, Indio, California. 

Feb. 11-15 — Pima County fair, Tucson, 
Arizona. 

Feb. 14-15— Third annual championship 
Silver Spur rodeo, sponsored by 
Junior chamber of commerce, Tu- 
cson, Arizona. 

Feb, 15 — Intermounrain invitational gi- 
ant slalom, Ephraim canyon, Eph- 
raim, Utah. 

Feb. 20-22— Annual Ski Carnival, Ari- 
zona Snow Bowl, Flagstaff, Ariz. 

Feb. 20-23 — 23rd annual Fiesta de Los 
Vaqueros, Tucson, Arizona. 

Feb. 21-22— University of Nevada Win- 
ter Carnival and Pacific Northwest 
Intercollegiate meet, Mt. Rose, Nev. 

Feb. 22 — Lecture, "National Parks and 
Monuments of the Southwest" by 
Frank A. Schilling, Southwest mu- 
seum. Highland Park, Los Angeles, 
California. 

Feb. 22 — Intermountain cross - country 
championships at Brighton, Utah, 

Feb. 28-29— Four-way invitational win- 
ter sports meet, Provo, Utah. 

Feb, 28-March 7 — Imperial County fair. 
County fair grounds. Imperial, Cali- 
fornia. 

Feb, 29— Annual Dons club Trek to Su- 
perstition Mountains, from Phoenix, 
Arizona. 

Feb. 29 — "The Jarabe Dancers," lecture. 
Southwest Museum, Highland Park, 
Los Angeles, California. 

Each Saturday until June 1 — Palm 
Springs Desert Breakfast rides, with 
guests of all Palm Springs, Cali- 
fornia, hotels participating. 

Each Saturday until June 1 — Palm 
Springs Sunfun hikes to study plant 
life and geology of Colorado desert 
and mountain canyons. Desert Mu- 
seum naturalists give explanatory 
talks. Palm Springs, California. 




Volume 1 1 



FEBRUARY. 1948 



Number 4 



COVER 



CALENDAR 



DESERT DAISIES. Photo taken by Don Ollis, 
Santa Barbara, California. 

February events an the desert . . . 



EXPLORATION 


Operation Underground! 

By JOHN" PRISER 


4 


BOTANY 


Oak Trees on Desert Mountains 

By MARY BEAL 


. 8 


ADVENTURE 


Grand Canyon Voyage 

By RANDALL HENDERSON 


. 9 


DESERT QUIZ 


A test of your knowledge of the desert . . . 


. 16 




He Guards the Secret of Turquoise Shrine 

By TONEY RICHARDSON 


. 17 


CONTEST 


Prize announcement for photographers . . . 


. 20 


ARTIST 


Paul Coze — Friend of the Tribesmen 

By HOPE GILBERT 


. 21 


PHOTOGRAPHY 


December prize photographs 


. 25 


MINING 


Current news of desert mines 


. 26 


NATURE 


Cactus Campmates 

By IRENE OLIN 


27 


NEWS 


From here and there on the desert .... 


. 29 


LETTERS 


Comment from Desert's readers 


. 37 


POETRY 


Miracle Hour and other poems 


. 39 


LAPIDARY 


Amateur Gem Cutter, by LELANDE QUICK . 


. 40 


HOBBY 


Gems and Minerals 


. 41 


COMMENT 


Just Between You and Me, by the Editor . . 


. 46 


BOOKS 


Reviews of current Southwest literature . . 


. 47 



The Desert Magazine is published monthly by the Desert Press, Inc.. G36 State Street, 
El Centre, California. Entered as second olass matter October 11, 1987, at the post office at 
El Centre California, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Title registered No. 3SSBG5 in U. S, 
Patent Office, and contents copyrighted 1948 by the Desert Press, Inc. Permission to reproduce 
contents must be secured from the editor in writing. 



RANDAL1 



HENDEJtSON, 
HAKOLD and J 



Editor. BESS STACY, Business Manager, 

UCILE WEIGHT, Associate Editors, 



Unsolicited manuscripts and photographs submitted cannot he returned or acknowledged 
unless full return postage is enclosed. Desert Magazine assumes no responsibility for damage 
or loss of manuscripts or photographs although due care will be exercised. Subscribers should 
send notice of change of address by the first of the month preceding issue. If address is un- 
certain by that date, notify circulation department to hold copies, 

SUBSCRIPTION RATES 
One Year . . . $3,00 Two Years , . . $5.00 

Canadian subscriptions 25c extra, foreign 50c extra. 

Subscriptions to Army personnel outside U.S.A. must be mailed in conformity with 
P.O.D. Order No, 19687. 



Address correspondence to Desert Ji 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



3 



The author, an amateur geologist and rock collector, s petti 
two days hi the cavern on one trip, taking measurements 
and notes. 



Dick Tbrop made a hazardous climb to reach this little 
niche in one of the calcium-lined room; deep in the heart 
of the mountain. 



O'petation Undetatound/ 



Curiosity led two Tucson deer-hunters to crawl 
through a tiny hole in the side of Catalina moun- 
tains — and what they found was a beautiful cavern 
lined with stalactites and stalagmites. This cave in 
Peppersauce canyon has not yet been fully ex- 
plored, but here are some glimpses of its exquisite 
formations, given by a writer who has spent many 
days in its depths. 

By JOHN PRISER 
Photos by Herb Paustian and Bob Holmes for 
Western Ways 

'HEN Herb Paustian suggested that I go with him in 
search of a little-known cave in the Catalina mountains 
north of Tucson, Arizona, I needed no second invita- 
tion. Herb is a professional photographer and I am a rock col- 
lector — and the prospect of exploring a new cave held great 
possibilities for both of us. 

According to the meager information we had, hunters in the 
Catalina mountains had come upon a small cave opening par- 
tially concealed by brush and rocks. Such openings are not un- 
usual in the Catalinas. 

Charles Yerington and Dick Throp, on a deer- hunting trip, 
had wriggled their way along the little tunnel to where it 
emerged in a roomy cavity. Flashing their lights around the 
walls they spied another opening— the entrance to another tun- 




nel. Crawling along this a distance of 30 feet they found them- 
selves in a much larger room. Here the beauty of the cavern 
began to unfold. From the ceiling hung great stalactites, and 
in the shadowy background were turrets and domes and castles 
—the exquisite carving accomplished by Nature over a long 
period of years. 

Returning to Tucson, the hunters told friends about the dis- 
covery and Herb became enthusiastic over a possible trip to the 
cave. "There'll be some fine shots for my camera," he said, 
"and you'll find new specimens for your rock collections. There 
is said to be a deep waterhole at the end of the cavern." 

The following Sunday we drove north from Tucson on 
Route 80, through Oracle on Route 77, past the Three C ranch, 
then two and one- half miles beyond Peppersauce canyon. It was 
just daylight when we parked our car near a large stone bridge. 
From here the cave was 1 00 yards upstream on the north side 
of the wash, 4450 feet above sea level. Charles and Dick led us 
through the tunnel. Herb and I followed with lights and tools. 
Bob Holmes and Jim Bryant, co-workers of Herb's, completed 
the party, carrying photographic supplies and a 50-foot rope. 

After crawling on hands and knees for about five feet, we 
reached the first small room. We lit our lanterns and adjusted 
our gear for the next crawl down a narrow, sloping 30-foot 
tunnel. At the end of the passageway, we shed our packs of 
food, water, extra flash bulbs and coats and played our lights 
about the room. We gasped in amazement at the white-coated 
walls and ceiling and at the long glistening stalactites. 

THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



As the party penetrated deeper into the cavern each neiv formation seemed lovelier than 
the previous ones. It does not require a very imaginative mind to see a tinseled Christmas 
tree on the right, and snow-laden evergreen on the left. 



I examined the walls and found the whiteness was due to 
heavy deposits of calcium carbonate which resulted from the 
slow dripping and evaporation of mineral-laden water. The 
stalactites, too, were of the same composition. In other parts 
of the cave, where the operation was in more advanced stages, 
huge spikey stalagmites rose from the floor beneath the stalac- 
tites. Many of these formations are still "growing" — that is, 
water still drips slowly from the end of the stalactites, settling 
on the tip of the stalagmites below. 

We thought perhaps the age of the cave might be determined 
by the size of these formations, but later Dr. McKee, head of 
the department of geology at the University of Arizona, assured 
me that size had no bearing. The rate of evaporation varies ac- 
cording to the circulation of air through the cave and the amount 
of mineral in the water. Recently- opened mine shafts will some- 
times contain fairly large stalactites after 10 or 20 years. Where 
conditions are not so favorable, many years are required for even 
a diminutive stalactite to form. It seems safe to assume, how- 
ever, that our cave is many centuries old, for some of the depos- 
its we found were mammoth and the evaporation process at best 
is extremely slow. 

We noticed a current of air moving toward the entrance as we 
headed into the next room — which was even larger. Here the 
formations were gigantic and the farther we proceeded the more 



amazing the sights became. My companions were stopping 
frequently to adjust their photographic equipment, which gave 
me time to search for rocks. I held a faint hope that we might 
uncover some sign of former Indian occupancy or even recent 
animal life, but was rewarded only by a few wildcat tracks and 
some bat dung in one of the rooms. 

While I was in a corner measuring one of the largest stalag- 
mites, Herb called, "Hey, fellows! Get the lights ready. Here's 
a bridge." 

I hurried over to find the others standing under a huge na- 
tural rock arch about eight feet from the ground. Where we 
stood then a stream of water probably had once rushed through 
the cave, carving a large hole in this deposit of solid limestone 
to form a bridge. 

Leaving the photographers to shoot the bridge from ail an- 
gles, I went ahead, eager to find something more — stones, relics, 
skeletons. 

The next room I entered contained some of the most spectacu- 
lar formations of all. The room itself vaguely resembled a taber- 
nacle. The ceiling sloped into the walls and curved toward the 
floor. Pipe-organ stalactites hung 30 feet overhead and from the 
walls long, ribbon-like fins loomed out, gracefully draped at the 
ends. One huge cluster, composed of several small stalactites 
" ung down from the center like a chandelier. 



FEBRUARY, 1948 




The entrance of the cave, well camouflaged in the center 
of the picture, is about 30 feel above the floor of the arroyo. 



It was in this room that I came upon the bat dung. This puz- 
zled me, for it did not seem likely that bats would enter from 
the low opening we had used. That fact, plus the current of air 
we had all noticed, indicated that some other opening lay at 
the end or along one of the passages we had not penetrated. 

Absorbed in probing one of these little corridors, I hadn't 
noticed the others pass ahead until Bob shouted, "Come over 
here and have a look. Where do you suppose this long shaft 
goes?" 

The others were casting their lantern lights down a long 
tunnel that sloped at a 45- degree angle to water level. The 
smooth surface was in such a contrast to the boulders and jag- 
ged floors we had passed over that we began to speculate. A 
shift in the limestone strata couldn't have left the smooth round 
crevice. We concluded that only the force of running water 
could have carved the shaft. 

Nearing the water hole, which was about 30 feet in diameter, 
we had to pick our way carefully. The last room was muddy and 
wet and the ground showed signs of a recent cave-in. Edging 
our way out to the end of the slippery ledge, we peered down 
and back under the ledge at the pool. As it was too far to jump, 
we used the rope to lower ourselves. Again we had to tread care- 
fully on the mud, as the floor sloped steeply to the water and 
on down 20 feet below water level. We took turns being low- 
ered by our heels to reach down for as cool and clear a drink of 
water as we ever tasted. On a later trip my companions tried 
swimming in the water hole, and found the water so cold that 
steam enveloped their bodies when they emerged from the pool. 
Air temperature here, as it was throughout the cave, was 70 
degrees. 

On this first excursion, we were inside the pitch-black in- 
terior for over nine hours. When at last we emerged, the daz- 
zling light from the late afternoon sun nearly blinded us. Tired, 
dirty and scratched from the rough rocks, we piled in the car 
for the trip back to Tucson. 

There I learned that the land surrounding the cave belongs 
to the Coronado national forest on lease to the Three C ranch 
for grazing. The probability of the Peppersauce canyon's cave 
being commercially exploited is slight because of larger and 
more accessible tourist-attracting caves in this part of the South- 
west. Local publicity, however, has drawn the attention of many 
young explorers who consider it a lark to inch through the long 
tunnel at the mouth and scramble over rocks and through crev- 
ices down long passageways hundreds of feet to the pools of 
water at the end. 

But this is not the end of the cave story. I have been back six 
times since we first started to explore and still haven't seen it all. 
My map shows seven known passageways still to be explored. 
The flow of air along the main passage toward the entrance 
also indicates an entrance that has not been discovered. 

Making the map took two days of work inside the cave. With 
a U, S, Army engineer's compass, a sight level and a 50- foot 
measuring tape, a large scale map of each room and passageway 
was made on cross section paper with details as to compass bear- 
ings, length, height, slope. Later the 22 detailed maps were 
combined on a master drawing with explanatory notes added. 

Dr. Carpenter, head of the Department of Entomology at 
Harvard university, was vacationing in Tucson last summer 
when he heard of the cave and asked me to guide him through. 
We planned only a short stay because, the scientist explained, 
insects would be found only within 20 or 30 feet from the 
opening. To Dr. Carpenter's surprise, we found an odd species 
of spider and cave crickets as far inside as 200 feet from the 
entrance. 

That day 50 or 60 different insects were taken from the cave. 
Many were extra large specimens of blind cave crickets with 
long jumping legs and no eyes, black dirt beetles, small flies, 
moths, spiders and others. Dr. Carpenter explained that the 
cave crickets are one of the mysteries of science. They are found 
in many caves in all parts of the world, yet they cannot travel 
from one cave to another. This type of cricket would die with- 



6 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



out moisture, moderate temperature and protective darkness. 
Obviously it could not travel across hundreds of miles of desert 
from one cave to another. Even if the crickets had been isolated 
in their own vicinity long before the desert took shape, it is a 
scientific marvel that cave crickets are identical the world over 
even today. 

You never know what you'll find next in a cave. Although 
our explorations yielded no gems of value, or evidence of In- 
dian occupancy, my third trip was especially rewarding. Deep 
inside the cave I discovered some unusual -shaped crystals in a 
wet section previously overlooked. Protruding upward from the 
floor of a very narrow crevice were sharp pointed pure white 
crystals of calcium. They were neither stalagmites or stalactites. 
Each point was similar to all the other points— a three sided, 
straight edged pattern of crystalline form. They were definitely 
the result of precipitation, not evaporation. 

Explorers of this cave — or any cave — may well take a tip or 
tw r o from veterans. Ample light is one of the first requisites. 
The Peppersauce Canyon cave is very irregular, and it would be 
almost impossible for anyone to get out safely without light. A 
good flashlight with extra batteries is the most reliable source, 
although a carbide miner's lamp is also excellent if you know 
how to handle one. 

The science of cave exploring is known as speleology. Any- 
body who explores the underground caverns, whether just for 
the thrill of a new adventure or in search of a scientific horizon, 
may call himself a speleologist. Many may find hidden treas- 
ures, but the surest reward is a chance for good exercise and a 
better understanding of geology. Banded together, explorers of 
caves have organized the National Speleological society with 
headquarters in Washington, D. C. Bulletins are sent regularly 
to members showing the location of newly discovered caves and 
telling stones of the experiences of member speleologists all 
over the world. 




Close-tip showing one oj the huge j in-like stalactites. 




The cave is 12 miles southeast o\ Oracle, Arizona, on the old road to Ml. Lcmmon, 2Vi miles 
south of Peppersauce canyon and 100 yards west of a large stone bridge. Elevation is 4450 
jeet. Temperature ranges from 68 to 70 degrees throughout. Mapped by John Priser. 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



7 




The Canyon oak, jound in the Pinyon pine belt of the 
higher desert ranges, varies in she jrom a shrub to a 60- 
\oot tree. Both toothed and entire leaves are seen on the 
branch pictured here. Beal photo. 



0<zic Izee6 on 




By MARY BEAL 

f J LTHOUGH oak trees belong to one of the most im- 
f / portant and widely distributed genera in the northern 
hemisphere, it is surprising to find so many species na- 
tive to the desert mountains. 

The background of the oaks distinction reaches to antiquity 
when it was prominent in legend and mythological lore. The 
Druids held it sacred, together with the mistletoe growing on 
its branches. Oak groves were their temples of worship. The 
huge Yuie log burned during the ancient Yule festival was 
always of oak, brought in on Christmas Eve with special cere- 
mony. 

Its religious significance has faded but the oak's importance 
continues in its useful contributions to domestic life and indus- 
trial development. It supplies valuable timber, the hard close- 
grained wood having superior durability and strength. Its acorns 
provide an excellent food for both wild and domestic animals 
and were a staple for the Indian, being rich in fats and oils. 
To prepare them for human consumption, the Indian women 
ground them in a stone mortar to a powdery meal, leaching out 
the tannin by filtering water through the meal until no bitter- 
ness remained. It was eaten as mush, bread or soup. Charles 
Francis Saunders in his Usejttl Wild Plants gives an interesting 
account of this preparation and of the gathering of the autumn 
harvest of acorns, celebrated by ceremonial dances and songs. 

The Western oaks have marked differences from those of 
the East and Middle West but the acorn, with its nut set in a 
scaly cup, identifies them as QaefCUS, the botanical label of the 
genus. The desert oak that I know best is the Canyon oak, Gold- 



Quercus chry solo pis 
This mountain Live oak in favorable situations is an impos- 
ingly handsome tree, wide-domed and symmetrical. To see it 
you must follow up the canyons or climb the slopes far up into 
the Pinyon belt of the higher desert mountain ranges. It is ex- 
tremely variable in habit of growth, shape of leaf and acorns, 
and adapts itself to varied conditions of location, being found 
almost throughout California from the coastal to desert ranges. 
Sometimes it takes a shrubby, or irregular form; often it is a 
well -shaped tree 20 to 60 feet high, with a short trunk and 
horizontal branches that form a broad, rounding, densely-leafy 
crown. Young twigs are hoary with soft wooly hairs and the 
new leaves are bronzy or light yellow -green, fuzzy beneath. The 
thick leathery older leaves, 1 to 2 inches long, are blue- green 
and polished above, paler and felted underneath with yellow- 
ish powdery hairs. The leaf shape varies from broad ovate to 
oblanceolate, with all gradations between, the margin entire or 
sharply-toothed, often on the same twig. The slender yellowish 
staminate catkins droop from the axils of the season's growth, 
the pistillate flowers solitary or few in a cluster. The acorns ma- 
ture the second autumn, the nut being ovate, or oblong, about 
one inch long, and the broad, thick cup fits over it like a fuzzy 
yellow turban. The wood is one of the most valuable of the 
western oaks, used chiefly for agricultural implements and 
wagons. 

In the Providence mountains you reach the first oaks at about 
6000 feet where the canyon walls are steep. There the trees are 
inclined to be rather shrubby or irregular. Farther up where the 
walls spread out into slopes reaching to the top ridges and peaks, 
the oaks find better footing and more bead-room, developing 
into splendid domes of bright green leafage. I'll never forget 
my first sight of one of those tree masterpieces, near the top of a 
long ridge far above me. I couldn't believe my eyes, but it 
loomed up conspicuously long before I reached the heights of 
the first outpost of the Canyon oaks. One canyon that slashes 
into the heart of the range, bends around between the high 
peaks and broadens into a wide bowl where the oaks are dom- 
inant, both shrubby and more stately trees. Its reported loca- 
tions include northern Mexico and Arizona. 

Similar to some of the phases of the Canyon oak, and for- 
merly listed as a variety of it, is the Palmer oak, 

Quercus palmer i 
An evergreen, rigidly-branched small tree or shrub 6 to £5 
feet high, the stiff, leathery, grey-green leaves elliptic to round- 
ish, spi nose- toothed and undulate, paler and hairy-felted be- 
neath, an inch more or less long. The acorn's cup is shallow and 
thinnish but covered with a dense golden wool, the ovoid nut 
tapering to a point. Locally abundant, often forming thickets, 
from the chaparral hillsides up to 7000 feet in Arizona, the 
ranges bordering the Colorado desert on the west, and into 
Lower California. Arizona has some noble oak forests, especial- 
ly in the southeastern part. The species that dominates those 
open park-like forests is the Emory oak, 

Quercus emoryi 
Very drouth-resistant, the Blackjack or Bellota (everyday 
names of Emory oak) grows up to 50 feet, a beautiful upright 
tree with one main dark -barked trunk and rather small branches 
spreading out horizontally, or occasionally shrubby. The sharp- 
pointed leaves are green above and below, broadly-lanceolate, 
with a few teeth at apex or entire. The acorns mature in 2 years. 
The Bellota extends east through southern New Mexico into 
western Texas, and northern Mexico. Also common in the same 
general areas is another large evergreen oak, the Arizona White 
oak, 

Quercus arhonica 
Usually a shapely tree, up to 60 feet high, with light-grey, 
ridged bark and crooked branches, the trunk sometimes 3 feet 
in diameter, sometimes a large shrub. The dull leaves are ob- 
lanceolate to obovate, cordate at base, the veins prominent be- 
neath. The acorns mature the first season. 



8 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



Norman Nevills and his lining crew lowered the boats along the e 
ropes, while the passengers portaged the cargoes on 



edge oj Una jails with 



Cftand & 



Gnu on 



l/c 



At Lava Falls the Nevills river expedition faced its most hazardous 
water— but passage was made by portaging the cargo and lining the 
boats along the edge of the rapids. Then after conguering the most 
treacherous obstacle at this stage of the river, one of the boats nearly 
capsized in a little riffle below. This is the concluding chapter of Randall 
Henderson s story of his voyage through Grand Canyon with the 1947 



By RANDALL HENDERSON 



HE ENTRANCE to Havasu can- 
/ yon is a narrow slit in the Grand 
Canyon sidewalk The turquoise 
blue water which enters the Colorado river 
in the Havasu tributary was deep enough 
for our boats, but so narrow wc had dif- 
ficulty using the oars. But the current was 
sluggish and we were able to propel our- 
selves 150 feet back into the crevice, to a 
point where the cliffs open up and the 
stream is bordered by a grassy floor wide 
enough for our camp. 

This is a lovely spot. The lower side- 
walls are coated with lime. Cascading 
down between them, with a green border 

FEBRUARY, 1948 



of grass and water cress is one of the most 
colorful streams in western America. In 
quiet pools the water is green, and then it 
tumbles over a miniature waterfall and is 
churned to a milky turquoise blue. 

A small tribe of Indians — the Supaf — 
live seven miles upstream. Bus they seldom 
come to the river, and there is no trail. I 
hiked from Supai village to the Colorado 
with 15 members of the Sierra club in 
1942. We waded much of the way, and 
clawed our way through dense thickets the 
remainder. 

With a cascade of blue-green water at 



sidewalls that blend from pure white to 
dark brown and grey between, this truly is 
a colorful setting, and we could have en- 
joyed this camp for days if our schedule 
had permitted. 

Wc had rainbow trout for supper — the 
fish Otis Marston caught that morning at 
Tapeats creek. But the perishable items in 
our commissary were gone. Wc left Phan- 
tom ranch with many loaves of bread, but 
the last of them had turned moldy. The 
remaining bacon, cheese and eggs were 
hardly edible. But while some items in 
our food stock were low, we still had an 
ample supply of others. 

Major Powell wrote that at this point 
his rations were reduced to a little musty 
flour, some dried apples, and an ample 
supply of coffee. In our boats were many 
cans of canned ham, fruit and fruit juice, 
biscuit and flapjack flour, cream of wheat, 
potatoes, peanut butter, pork and beans, 
pickles, tomatoes and milk and coffee and 
tea. Despite the moldy bread we were liv- 



ing in luxury compared with those early 
Colorado river navigators. 

Sleeping space was rather limited here, 
but each of us found a ledge or a grassy 
corner big enough for a bedroll, and in- 
stead of the roar of rapids we had the tink- 
ling music of Havasu creek as our bedtime 
serena.de. 

Most members of the party had sleep- 
ing bags. At the last minute before leaving 
Lee's ferry I discarded mine, and I never 



& if Mi X. tj% 







had occasion to regret it. My bedroll was 
an air mattress, a blanket, and a light 
waterproof tarpaulin, and that was 
enough. Only on rare occasions on a sum- 
mertime trip Lhrough Grand Canyon is it 
cool enough to crawl inside a sleeping bag. 
They are of service only as padding — and 
an air mattress does the job much better. 

We were up at six next morning and 
after a breakfast of buckwheat cakes, spent 
three hours climbing the walls and explor- 
ing the lower Havasu. Norman and Joe 
climbed to a high point upstream from the 
Havasu-Colorado junction where five 
well-constructed rock cairns could be seen, 
but found no records in them. Some one 
dared Norman to jump over Havasu creek 
from sidewall to sidewall at the top of the 
narrow slot through which we had brought 
the boats, 40 feet above the stream. Before 
the bantering had ended, Norman, Garth, 
Al and Kent all jumped the 10 or 12-foot 
span. Then Joe Jr. j umped from a ledge 30 
feet up on the sidewall to the creek below 
and swam out. 

But there were more rapids ahead and 



at 10:10 we departed reluctantly from our 
little shangri-la in Havasu canyon. We ran 
Havasu and 164-Mile rapids without stop- 
ping, and then had lunch on a bar above 
Cataract creek. Joe Jr. ran the Wen 
through Stairway creek rapids, all the boats 
carrying full passenger loads. We ran Red 
Slide rapids easily and after navigating six 
heavy riffles, passed a huge plug of lava 
out in the stream, known as Vulcan's 
Forge. 

One of the questions 1 had intended to 
ask Norman at the end of the trip was 
which, in his opinion, was the roughest 
rapid on this voyage through the canyon. 
But when we came to Lava Falls I knew 
the answer. At this stage of the river, Lava 
Falls is the daddy of them all. 

According to the geological map the 
river drops 25 feet in a half mile, which is 
less than at some of the other rapids. But 
as Norman put it, "It isn't the depth of 
the fall that counts, but the manner of do- 
ing it." In most of the rapids Ol' Man 
River rolls over submerged boulders, cre- 
ating a hump on the surface of the water 



and a treacherous hole below each of them. 
But at Lava the river collides with its bur- 
ied blocks of lava. Every wave is an ex- 
plosion wave, sending a spray high in the 
air. 

Norman ran this rapid in low water in 
1940, but at this high stage it looked like 
suicide to attempt it. "We'll line this one," 
the skipper said, after looking it over. 

There was a narrow beach above the 
falls, and some clear water seeping out of 
the bank. It had the sweetish taste of lime- 
water, but was palatable, and we had a 
comfortable camp that night, always with 
the roar of the rapids in our ears. 

A visitor arrived during the evening, the 
first stranger we had met since leaving 
Phantom ranch. John R if fey, custodian of 
Grand Canyon national monument on the 
North Rim — not to be confused with 
Grand Canyon national park — hiked 
down from his headquarters at Tuweap, 
at an elevation of 4775 feet, to spend the 
night with us. He had been advised in ad- 
vance of our schedule and the rangers at 
Phantom ranch told us he probably would 
be with us for a few hours. 

We were camped on the south shore, but 
when we saw him making his way down 
over the lava talus on the north side just 
before dusk, Norman rowed across and 
brought him to camp. From him we 
learned the geological history of this sec- 
tor of Grand Canyon. The north wall here 
is solid lava, which according to geolo- 
gists, probably came from a now extinct 
crater on the North Rim known as Vul- 
can's Throne. Three times in geological 
history Vulcan has erupted and sent a 
great stream of molten rock into the gorge 
at this point. One can imagine the thun- 
derous hiss of steam and the great clouds 
of vapor which filled the skies when those 
streams and avalanches of hot lava poured 
over the rim and into the water of the 
Colorado. 

At each of those periods the canyon was 
partially plugged, and reservoirs created 
above. But eventually the scouring action 
of the silt-laden water cut its way through 
the obstacle. The action was hastened by 
the fact that Nature doesn't take as much 
pains with its lava dams as does a 20th 



10 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



Where the voyagers camped overnight beside the blue- green water near the mouth of 
Havasu creek. The white coating on the louer sidewalls is lime deposited by the stream. 



century engineer when he creates a struc- 
ture such as Hoover dam. These natural 
dikes of lava lacked the deep bedrock 
foundations and the recessed abutments of 
a man-made structure. And as the lava 
hardened it cracked and left crevices 
through which the water seeped, and hast- 
ened the process of destruction. We saw 
blocks of prehistoric lava clinging to the 
granite and limstone and sandstone walls 
during the remainder of the trip all the 
way to Lake Mead. 

But Nature has not yet finished the job 
of cutting a smooth floor for the river at 
Lava Falls. And the side canyons are still 
bringing in storm debris to block the chan- 
nel. 

We slept on the beach that night, and 
next morning Lava Falls looked as ugly as 
it had the day before. And yet, despite the 
chaos of mighty waves out there in mid- 
stream, I believe that if Norman had taken 
a vote of the passengers and boatmen as 
to whether it should be run, or the boats 
lined down the side, the decision would 
have been almost unanimous for the ride 
through. Such was the confidence the 
members of this expedition felt in their 



boats. 

But we did not argue with the skipper. 
He knows the river far better than any of 
the rest of us will ever know it. And so in 
good spirit we began the arduous task of 
portaging food and bedrolls and camp 
equipment down along the rocky shoreline 
a third of a mile to a point below the falls. 

Norman organized a lining team com- 
posed of Kent and Joe Jr. on the tow rope 
and Garth and John Riffey on the stern 
rope. As captain of the team lie remained 
in the boat to guide it over and around the 
rocks on the edge of the torrent. In fast 
water the crew on the upper rope held t he- 
boat back, and when it had to be skidded 
over boulders that projected above the sur- 
face the ropemen below pulled it along. 
The rest of us were making trip after trip 
with our packs along the shore. 

At 1 1 :00 o'clock the boats were through 
and reloaded, and we dropped down- 
stream a half mile to a sandbar where we 
ate lunch in the shade of an arrow weed 
thicket. The thermometer read 108 de- 
grees. 

One drinks literally gallons of water 



each day in such temperatures, and we 
were taking salt tablets to keep our sys- 
tems from being drained of their minerals. 
There are some pretty springs gushing 
from banks of maidenhair ferns below 
Lava Falls. The water was clear, and 
looked most inviting— but its tempera- 
ture was 79 degrees, and it tasted so bad 
we preferred to drink the muddy 79- 
degrce water that ran in the river. On the 
map this place is marked as "Warm 
Springs" and there have been widely vary- 
ing reports as to its temperature. We 
checked it with two thermometers at 79 
degrees. 

We were grateful to John Riffey for the 
help he had given us in. the lining and 
portage job. Norman invited him to ride 
through a riffle just below our lunch camp 
and get a sample of white water navigation 
before starting the return hike up the cliffs 
to Tuweap. 

Before we shoved off, Norman told A I 
and me to put on our life belts. Then he- 
gave one to John, showed him how to put 
it on, and then slipped into his own kapok 
jacket, I thought it rather strange we 
should be putting on our preservers for a 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



1L 




Straightaway rapids. 



<C" rapids. 



"S" rapids. 



These sketches by Norman Nevills and Norton Allen show the technique most commonly 
used on the Nevills expeditions to run the boats through the three types of rapids. There are 
many variations, depending on the height of the stream and the rocks, both submerged and 
protruding, but the theory generally is to follow the main tongue or "V" to the point where 
it. breaks into huge waves, and then get out of the waves as soon as practicable. The boat 
goes stem first so the oarsman is always facing his greatest danger, whether it be rocks, 

holes, waves or side-wall, 



lowly riffle with only three-foot 
But the skipper usually knows what he is 
about, and we did as we were told and 
asked no questions. 

We headed into the riffle, but instead 
of "stealing" through in the usual manner 
Norman turned the boat broadside just 
in time for one of those 3-footers to curl 
over and land on top of us. The weight of 
the water on one side tipped the boat on 
edge and for a moment I thought we were 
going to turn over, AI and I were out in 
front on the stern deck and the wave lifted 
us clear off the wood and we were hanging 
by the ropes. I was on the low side, and if 
Al had lost his grip and come tumbling 



down on top of me we would both have 
gone overboard. 

But just at the critical moment Norman 
dropped his oars and leaped to the upper 
side, and I think his added weight there 
kept us from capsizing. The boat righted, 
full of water to the gunwales. Instinctively, 
we began fishing in the bottom for some- 
thing with which to bail. Al found a 
bucket down there, but when he tried to 
bring it up Norman's foot was wedged in 
it. But we drifted into smoother water and 
by the time we had reached the shore had 
bailed at least a half ton of water out of 
the cockpit. 

"I wanted to give John a little sample of 



rough water," Norman admitted after- 
ward, "but 1 didn't intend to come that 
near pitching you fellows overboard." In 
one little riffle, John Riffey had come closer 
to a capsize than any of us had experienced 
on all the rest of the trip. 

Below Lava Falls we had an exciting 
moment when we spied the yellow color- 
ing of what appeared to be a boat lodged 
among the weeds on a sandbar. "May be 
Roemer's boat," Nprman yelled, and start- 
ed pulling for the shore. We had been 
looking for the wreckage of such a boat all 
the way down from Phantom ranch. 

The story: An Austrian known as 
Charles Roemer left Lee's ferry October 



12 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



m installed by ]ulius F. Stone. 



19, 1946, with only meager provision, 
stating he was going to run the Grant! Can- 
yon rapids in his rubber boat. He was last 
seen floating past the foot of Bright An- 
gel trail October 24, and his fate remains 
a mystery. ■ 

We had seen footprints on the sandbar 
at one of the rapids on the way down and 
had every reason to believe they were made 
by Roemer, but we found no other evi- 
dence of his passing. Norman was first to 
reach the yellow something in the weeds 
—and he turned back with an exclamation 
of disgust 

"It is a boat," he said, "but not Roe- 
mer's." It was a small wooden skiff, tied 
to a mesquite tree, and probably had been 
used by fishermen coming down Whit- 
more canyon. We Left it as we found it. 

We camped that night on Whitmore's 
bar, and the following day after running 
only minor riffles arrived at the mouth of 
Spring canyon for an overnight stop. There 
is a fine spring a half mile up the side can- 
yon, and Kent and Garth and I fought our 
way through a jungle of willow and arrow- 
weed and mesquite to reach it. The tem- 
perature was ] 22 degrees, but it sprinkled 
just after dark and cooled the air enough 
to provide a comfortable night's rest. 



There were clouds of bats in the air at 
dusk. 

We were off at 8:00 in the morning. 
Fifteen minutes later we ran 205-Mile rap- 
ids without stopping. It was short and 
choppy. Then came Granite Park rapids 
which was an easy one, and at 10:35 we 
reached 217-Mile rapids. Although not a 
major rapid, it looked rough and we pulled 
in above to look it over. 

Norman studied it awhile, then turned 
and said: "This is going to be Dub's day. 
I'll run the Wen through, joe, you follow 
in the Mexican Hat. Randall, you bring 
the Sandra through, and Al will follow in 
the ]6an. The rest will stay here on the 
rocks and watch you landlubbers do your 
Stuff." 

I wouldn't have been more surprised if 
Norman bad told me to jump in the river 
and swim down to Lake Mead. I am 
neither a good swimmer nor an experi- 
enced boatman. And Norman knows it. 
I am like Dick Wick Hall's frog that lived 
on the desert so long it never learned to 
swim. Oh, I can paddle around a little, 
and I know which end of the oar to use as 
a propel lor, But in the water I am a Dub 
with a capital "D." 

I grinned at Norman— and then I re- 



alized he was not kidding. So — if he was 
willing to trust the newly-christened San- 
dra, the pet of his fleet, in my hands, I 
would surely do my best to deliver it right- 
side-up at the bottom of the rapids. 

I stood on a high rock and watched 
Norman glide down the tongue of the 
rapid, carefully avoiding a big rock where 
the water tumbled over into a swirling 
eddy near the tip of it, and then pull like a 
sonuvagun to keep out of the 8-foot waves 
that could easily dash the boat into the 
granite wall on the opposite side. I've 
watched Norman take bis boat through a 
hundred of those rapids on the San Juan 
and Colorado rivers. I knew the theory of 
it perfectly. But I wondered if those pesky 
oars would do what I told them to do. 

Joe Jr. came through without trouble 
and then I made my way up the shore to 
where the boat was moored above, with 
much the same feeling I had at Kelly 
field in World War I the first time the in- 
structor got out of the plane and said: 
"Now you take it off and fly around the 
course." 

I overlooked no detail. I had observed 
that before Norman and Kent tackled 
rough rapids they always reached over the 
side of the boat and washed their hands 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



13 




foe Desloge Jr. in the kapok lije 
jacket in which he swam Deubendor^ 
rapids. Later he and Otis Mar si on 
went through without preservers. 



and face in river water, and then took a 
drink of it. I don't know just what signifi- 
cance there is in that little ritual— but if 
there were any fetishes which would help a 
fellow stay right- side- up going through 
that tumbling watet, I was going to need 
them. So I gathered up everything loose in 
the boat and put it in the hatches, stripped 
down to my bathing trunks, hooked a life- 
belt around my waist, washed my face and 
hands in the river watet, took a gulp of it, 
and then untied the boat and shoved off. 

It took about four minutes to row out 
into the current above the tongue, a half 
minute more to glide down the tongue past 
that submerged rock, and then in less sec- 
onds than it takes to write this down on 
the typewriter I had pulled out of those 
big breakers and was coasting along in 
smooth water to a point just above where 
Norman had moored the Wen. Those oars 



had done just what I told them to. "You 
followed my route perfectly," Norman 
said. 

So that is the beginning and end of my 
career as a Colorado river boatman. I am 
going to quit now while my record, like 
Norman's, is 1 00 per cent. Lady Luck 
might not be so good to me next time. 

We dropped down below 217-Mile for 
lunch, then in the afternoon ran Granite 
Springs and 224-Mile rapids without stop- 
ping. Granite Springs marks the high 
point reached by Harry Aleson in his effort 
to bring an outboard motorboat upstream 
from Lake Mead several years ago. He had 
to buck some rough water to get this far, 
for the lake was not as high then as it is 
now. 

We camped that night on a sandbar at 
the mouth of Diamond creek where a road 
was built in to serve the drilling crew 
which spent several months on this spot 
scouting the possibilities of a storage dam 
in the river. 

That evening, just as the sun went 
down, four of us were given out initiation 
into the Royal Otder of Colorado Rivet 
Rats, This is a ritual passed along to Nor- 
man many years ago by Emery Kolb, and 
is given to those who make their first trip 
through the gorge from Lee's ferry. Mar- 
garet, Kent, Al and I were the eligible 
members of this expedition. Margaret be- 
came the sixth woman to join the Order. 
Regarding the initiation, I can only say 
that it was a vety wet affair, 

Otis Marston reported that a lion and 
cub were seen on a ledge below 205-Mile 
rapids. Also, some wild burros were seen 
and heard during the day. 

That evening on the beach by the light 
of the moon we played charades, as we had 
done many evenings on the voyage 
through the gorge when we were not too 
tired. We chose sides and limited our act- 
ing to the titles of books, plays and songs. 
Ours was a congenial group and we en- 
joyed those evenings of play. From Lee's 
ferry to Boulder City I never heard an un- 
kind word spoken by one member of the 
party to another. 

All the major rapids had been passed, 
and my companions were relaxed and gay 
when we shoved off next morning. There 
were a few minor rapids to run that day — 
Diamond creek, Travertine, 231 -Mile, 
232-Mile, 234-Mile, Bridge canyon, 
Gneiss canyon — and then we came to 
Separation rapids, once a nightmare to 
boatmen, but now submerged under the 
waters of upper Lake Mead. 

It was here that Powell's first expedi- 
tion had a tragic split. Three of the crew, 
Win. H. Dunn and O. G. and Seneca 
Howland, announced they were leaving 
the party and climbing out, Powell pro- 
tested, but they climbed to the North Rim, 
and two days later were killed by Indians. 

Historians have not agreed as to who 
was most to blame for the division in 
Powell's party, almost at the end of the 




End of the journey. The cataract boats 
were towed from Pierce's jerry to 
Boulder City by a Park service launch. 



journey. Some have accused Powell of be- 
ing harsh and arbitrary. Others regard the 
men who left as deserters. Julius F. Stone 
became an outspoken partisan on the side 
of Dunn and the Howlands, and in 1939 
placed a bronze plaque in memory oi the 
three men on the sidewall above the rapids. 

1 was interested in Norman's conclu- 
sions regarding this episode. "Powell may 
have been guilty of all the misdeeds 
charged against him," said Norman, "and 
yet I cannot justify the men in leaving him 
_at this critical point in the journey. In my 
opinion they were deserters." 

We climbed the sidewall to read the in- 
scription on the plaque, and then had 
lunch in the shade of trees along Separa- 
tion creek. 

One of the launches operated by private 
concessionnaites on Lake Mead was sched- 
uled to meet us somewhere near the head 
of the lake. But the bars and shoals where 
the Colorado dumps its daily load of silt 
into the reservoir make treacherous navi- 
gation for large craft, and we were sure 
they would not come as far as Separation 
creek. That afternoon we rowed with the 
sluggish current in the upper lake, and 
when a breeze sprang up hoisted our tar- 
paulins as sails. 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



By six o'clock in the evening we esti- 
mated we had come 20 miles. We pulled 
in and camped among the tamarisks and 
willows on a bar near Quartermaster can- 

Son. We could hear wild burros braying 
uring the night. 

Next morning we were up at 5:30, and 
two hours later the camp chores were fin- 
ished and we were on the lake again. The 
crew and passengers took turns with the 
one set of oars in each boat, working 30- 
minute shifts. Occasionally there would 
be a light breeze, and we would take ad- 
vantage of it to raise the sails. But most of 
the time we were on our own power. The 
current had disappeared by the second day 
and it was slow going, but no one com- 
plained. 

At 11:30 we pulled in to Emory falls, a 
picturesque cascade that drops 40 feet over 
a sheer cliff into a little cove. When Lake 
Mead is at low stage sandbars and drift- 
wood often make the falls inaccessible by 
boat, but the lake was high now and wc 
were able to fill our canteens by rowing 
directly under the falling water. 

On the gravel bar at Emory falls is a 
botanical garden of strange bed-fellows. 
Yellow columbine, crimson monkcy- 
f lower, thistle and maidenhair ferns were 
growing together where a seepage from the 
sidewall provided moisture for their toots. 

We had expected the launch to meet us 
here, but when it failed to arrive at 4:00 
o'clock we shoved off and headed down 
the lake with our oars and improvised sails. 
Below Emory falls the canyon walls in 
which we had been imprisoned for nearly 
three weeks rolled back and unveiled a 
great expanse of blue sky. We were out of 
the Grand Canyon gorge. 

Our immediate destination was Pierce's 
ferry. We were sure the boat would meet 
us there. As we headed into the great in- 





At Emory jails the boatmen were able to row in and fill the canteens from the 

falling stream. 

FEBRUARY, 1948 



Julius F, Stone erected this plaque at Separation rapids where Dunn and the 
Howlands left the Powell party. 

let in which the Pierce ferry landing is lo- 
cated we heard the put-put of an outboard 
motor, and in a few minutes Bill Green of 
the Pierce ferry ranger station came along- 
side. We tied onto the little power boat 
and arrived at the landing in tandem for- 
mation just before dusk. 

Green lives alone at the old landing, op- 
erating a weather station for the Weather 
bureau, taking water measurements for the 
Reclamation bureau, seismological read- 
ings for the Geological survey, and in 
the service of the Park department filling 
the role of custodian and dude- wrangler. 
Fishermen and campers often follow the 
rough road to the old ferry for a few days' 
outing. This is part of the Hoover Dam 
recreational area and Bill Green is Uncle 
Sam s official representative in this remote 

he proved to be. 

Wc camped overnight on the beach and 
next morning a National Park service 
launch arrived with a welcoming commit- 
tee that included President Paul McDer- 
mott of the Las Vegas chamber of corn- 

15 



DESERT QUIZ 



Here is Desert Magazine's monthly brain exercise. 
It is written for those who would like to become 
better acquainted with the desert playground of the 
Southwest. It includes a bit of geography, history, geology, botany and the gen- 
eral lore of the desert country. You will not get them all right, but you will be a 
wiser person when you have tried. Twelve out of 20 is a fair score. From 1 J to 
15 is superior. Sixteen or over is exceptional. The answers are on page 45. 

1 — Highest peak visible from the California desert is— San Jacinto peak 

San Gorgonio peak Mt. Whitney Telescope peak 

2 — Bill Williams river is a tributary of — The Colorado river 

Salt river Sati Juan Gila 

3 — Stovepipe Wells hotel is located — In Salt river valley. • 

Death Valley Near Salt Lake In Imperial valley 

] One of the following is a poisonous lizard — Gila Monster 

Alligator lizard Chuckawalla lizard.— Leopard lizard 

5 — First party of white men to visit Rainbow bridge was led by — 

Kit Carson Marcos de Niza Lieut. Beale John Wctherill 

6 — The name John Hance is associated with — Death Valley. 

Grand Canyon... Founding of Santa Fe.. Exploration of Great Salt 

Lake. 



-The feud between the Clanton gang and the Earps came to a showdown 
" : at— Ehrenbcrg Bisbee Prescott Tombstone 



8— The staple meat in the diet of the Navajo Indian 
Beef... .... Mutton Wild game - Pork 



9— In driving your car through heavy sand you will probably get best results 

by — Letting your wife drive while you push Putting drains on the 

wheels Reducing the air pressure in the tires Turning the car 

around and backing through 

10 — The mountain range northeast of Sal ton sea in Southern California is the — 
Laguna Santa Rosa Castle Dome Chocolate 

11— The notorious Indian chief who used the Dragoon mountains of southern 

Arizona as a hideout was — Irateba Winnemucca Palma 

Cochise 

12 — The common name of the desert plant of the genus Foucjuieria should be 
spelled— Ocotillo Ocotilla Ocatilla Ocatillo... 

1J — The man for whom the Bandolier national monument of New Mexico was 
named was a — Trapper Archeologist Artist Scout 

14 — The prehistoric Indian tribesmen known as Hohokam occupied the area now 
known as — Salt River valley Havasupai canyon 

Mojavc desert... White mountains of Arizona 

15 — The famous Bottle House is located at — Rhyolite Gold field 

Panamint City Calico 

16— The metallic name of the mineral known as Malachite is — 
Copper Iron Silver Lead 

17 — The infamous Mountain Meadows massacre occurred in — 
Nevada Arizona California Utah 

18 — The fleetest wild animal now found in Nevada is the — Mule deer 

Antelope Jackrabbit Bighorn sheep 

19 — To reach the famous Phantom Ranch it would be necessary to — 

Cross the Paiute reservation in Nevada... Climb the Enchanted Mesa 

Go to the bottom of Grand Canyon Take a trail out of Taos 

20 — The territory known as the Gadsden Purchase was bought from — 
The Indians France Spain Mexico 



merce. Dr. Gordon Baldwin, archeologist 
for the Park service, P. C. Christensen, di- 
rector of power at Hoover dam, and a 
group of newspaper and radio reporters 
and photographers. Uncle Sam's boat, pi- 
loted by Ray Poyser, veteran lake pilot, 
towed our boats on the last lap of the voy- 
age to Boulder City. 

That night we toured Hoover dam as 
guests of the Reclamation bureau, and had 
a final dinner together as a fitting end to 
the Nevills' Colorado River Expedition of 
1947. 

Somewhere up the lake we saw the last 
of our mascot, the blue heron. For its 
friendly interest in our journey through 
those rough waters I can only wish the bird 
a long and healthy life — and lots of fish 
dinners. 

Navigation of Grand Canyon has passed 
through a radical transition since 1869. 
First came the explorers — the Powells, 
Stanton, Brown, Dellenbaugh and the 
pathfinders who proved the river was 
navigable. They won through terrible 
hardships and many casualties. 

Then came that group of men — scien- 
tists, engineers and professional men — 
who pioneered the way to safe navigation. 
They were the forerunners of the flat- 
bottomed boats and stern-first operation. 
Stone and Col. Birdseye and the Kolbs 
were the leaders in this period. 

Then Clyde Eddy in 1927 brought a 
group of college boys down through the 
canyon for pure adventure. 

And now, Norman Nevills has perfect- 
ed the boats and the skill needed to make 
this canyon voyage a glorious adventure 
in comparative security. The waves are just 
as big and powerful, and the rocks and 
eddies no less treacherous than they were 
80 years ago. And woe to the boatman who 
does not know how to face them. But the 
Colorado river can be run in comparative 
safety, and for future voyagers who follow 
this river trail I can only suggest that they 
never for an instant forget Norman Nev- 
ills' guiding rule: "Face your danger, and 
play it safe!" 

THE END 



BACK NUMBERS 

For the information of new 
subscribers who missed the first 
three chapters of Randall Hen- 
derson's story of his Grand 
Canyon voyage, the November, 
December and January issues 
of Desert, all or any of them are 
available at 25c each, postpaid. 
Address Desert Magazine, El 
Centro, California. 



i6 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 




Todad&grte is the standing Navajo, uith his 
brother-in-law and children. He is the Only 
iihtii to enter the Turquoise shrine and come 
out alive. 




•He (fuatd* the Secret 
ofi lute. 



uoiie 



ShtL 



tine 



Here is a strange story of hidden wealth in the Navajo country— a 
fabulous deposit of prehistoric jewelry that has been protected down 
through the centuries by the boiling waters of a subterranean geyser. The 
one Indian who holds the key to the secret has asked that no specific in- 
formation be given as to its location, for obvious reasons. 

By TONEY RICHARDSON 



J /i.ARLY 30 years have passed since 
/[/ I first heard of the Turquoise 
Shrine. Like many of the legends 
and rumors of the Navajo country I re- 
garded the story as rather fantastic.-, but 
like the tales of lost mines, something that 
might have a basis of fact. 

The Navajo guard their secrets well, and 
in the maze of underground rumor that 
pervades the Indian country one is never 
quite sure what to believe. More than once 

FEBRUARY, 19 4 8 



during the years I have spent among these 
tribesmen I have seen the misty aura of 
folk tale roll back and disclose amazing 
reality. In time one acquires the philo- 
sophical attitude of the late Hosteen John 
Werheril! of Kayenta, Arizona: "I don't 
know why or how these things be. I only 
know they are," 

One afternoon at Inscription House 
trading post when business was dull, my 
old friend Todachene Nez strolled in to 



buy a 10-cent plug of chewing tobacco. 
Leaning on the counter he drifted into aim- 
less conversation. 

"1 have never seen this Turquoise 
Shrine," I remarked, 

Todachene Nez took a quick look at 
me, and began to laugh. Until now. I was 
unaware that Todachene knew anything 
about the fabled Shrine. 

"You have been down in Navajo can- 
yon many times," he said. "Yet you say 
you haven't seen the Turquoise Shrine of 
the Old Ones? My brother, I am amused!" 

Todachene Nez threw back his head 
and laughed loud and long. Afterward I 
had to laugh also, because it was astound- 
ing to realize I had been past the Shrine 
numberless times, not knowing it was 
there. 

"You want to see this place?" Toda- 
chene Nez asked when he tired of laugh- 
ing at my expense. "Til show it to you, "Be 
down in the canyon before the Mmsazzfe 
h'k'm (Inscription House Ruin) early." 

In the dawn the next morning, I sad- 
dled a horse and rode three miles to the 
rim of Navajo canyon. Another three 
miles down a scenic trail into Nectsin can- 
yon brought me to the foot of the cliff in 
which Inscription House cliff ruin is sit- 



17 




These pieces of turquoise came from the top of the rock in which the Turquoise 
shrine is located. The two small pieces probably were part o\ a string of beads. The 
' its were found below Shrine rock in 1 928 and sold by the finder Hosteen 
Sayetsissy to Mrs, S, !. Richardson. 



uated. This archeological site, in the Na- 
vajo national monument, was first visited 
by white men in 1661. 

In the grass beside the fence protecting 
the ruin sat Todachene Nez, chewing his 
inevitable cud of tobacco. Mounting his 
pony he led off. We covered only a short 
distance before halting at the base of a 
great rock towering better than 125 feet 
above the canyon floor. 

"There it is," he said in a casual way. 

To say I was surprised is putting it 
mildly. The Turquoise Shrine stands in a 
location where dozens of Anglo-Ameri- 
cans and hundreds of Indians pass it every 
year. And yet not over three Navajo In- 
dians know what it is. Only two living 
white men to my knowledge, know that 
this great massive rock is the Turquoise 
Shrine! 

The white man other than myself is 
Randall Henderson, to whom I told the 
story of the Turquoise Shrine in April, 
l§4% when he visited the trading post. A 
few months ago when I returned from duty 
with the navy in the western Pacific I went 
to the Shrine to take pictures, intending to 
write about the place. It was only then that 
Todachene Nez decided he did not want 
the exact location given. Inasmuch as lie is 
the possessor of the secret of the Shrine, I 



agreed with him. Publication of pictures of 
it would make it instantly recognizable by 
any who came near it later. 

The mass of the Shrine is deceiving. It 
looks smaller than it is. As Todachene Nez 
and I surveyed it, I wondered how we 
could scale the wall. I recalled that twice 
before I tried to work my way to the top, 
not then knowing what it was. Moreover 
along with many other people I have often 
eaten lunch or cooked supper at the base. 

Dismounting and hobbling our horses, 
Todachene Nez and I took down our 
ropes. He went ahead, working and 
squirming his way half way up the west 
side of the rock. Reaching what seemed to 
be an impassable place, he slipped a stick 
into the noose of his rope, tossed it up into 
a crack in the rock, and we went up a sheer 
wall hand over hand on the rope. I ; rom 
there on it took us more than an hour, us- 
ing both ropes, to reach a break in the 
overhanging rim. 

The surface of the great rock was broken 
and wind swept. On the eastern half stood 
the crumbling walls of several ancient 
rooms. Otherwise it was bare. A rush of 
wind seemed to sing constantly over the 
great rock. 

As soon as we gained the top I immedi- 
ately was aware of a subterranean roar. It 



wouid die down to nothing, only to return 
after several minutes with a rising cres- 
cendo. 

Todachene Nez smiled as he pointed to 
the lower end of the rock. There in a dish 
shaped basin was exposed a black hole be- 
tween eight and ten feet across. The sub- 
terranean sounds emerged from this open- 
ing, I noticed also that the bare stone sur- 
face around it was water polished, not 
wind blown. 

We went forward, crawling the last few 
feet and lying flat, peered into the dark- 
ness below. A rush of cold wind preceded 
the roaring of water. It boiled inside the 
cavernous hole, came almost to the top, 
then subsided into the darkness beyond 
our vision. 

Retiring from the hole, Todachene Nez 
began talking about the Shrine. He was the 
only Indian who ever went down into the 
Shrine and emerged alive! Small wonder 
be knew about the Turquoise Shrine. 

The first known white men to see the 
Shrine were Ben and Bill Williams in 
1885. Their names, "Ben & Bill, 1885" 
are cut in the cliff of Inscription House 
ruin not far away. These two men with 
their father, J. P. Williams, roved across 
the western Navajo country in search of a 
lost mine. The Williams were Indian trad- 
ers when not prospecting. It was Billy A. 
Ross, an old prospector, who told them of 
a bubbling spring in Jones canyon, some- 
time in the early 1880's. 

Jones canyon is reached over a saddle 
northeast of Inscription House ruins. 
When the Williams brothers found the 
bubbling spring in 1885 it geysered to a 
height of 12 feet. Today the stone cabin 
once built behind the spring is gone, and 
the water no longer spurts periodically 
out of the earth. 

After finding the spring the Williams 
brothers camped at the base of the Tur- 
quoise Shrine. One morning Bill discov- 
ered a dozen pieces of ancient polished 
turquoise. Suspecting it must come from 
off the great rock, he and Ben spent two 
days gaining the top. They looked into 
the yawning hole, saw the water rush all 
the way out on the top, and are reported to 
have gathered a small flour sack of tur- 
quoise left behind by the receding water. 

While the Navajo in the region did not 
themselves find the shrine until after 1 900, 
they had known it was somewhere in the 
region for more than 100 years. 

According to Navajo legend the ancient 
cliff dwellers in the adjacent canyons de- 
posited offerings of turquoise and sacred 
objects in the hole. Since this had been 
done for centuries the Navajo decided if 
they could find the Shrine, the men who 
recovered this great store of turquoise 
would he wealthy overnight. 

A Navajo known only as Hoshteen (not 
Hosteen, a venerable person of middle age, 
but "hoshteen" a headman definitely past 
50 years) spent much time peering into 
holes and caves seeking the place. He 



18 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



Turquoise Shrine is not far from Inscription House ruins, pictured above, but in this land 
of sandstone walls and domes that isn't much of a clue to its exact location. 



found many holes with water in them. 
These were investigated easily. Small boys 
lowered on ropes explored the bottoms, 
finding no turquoise. 

One day Hoshteen heard that Navajo 
were finding pieces of Ahnasazzie tur- 
quoise at the foot of a great rock mass. 
Especially -was this true after a winter when 
the snow fall had been great and the spring 
winds were harsh. He determined to scale 
the wall, although other Navajo warned 
him it could not be done. 

Hoshteen rigged up a contrivance of 
rock platforms, long poles and ropes. One 
day he reached the bowl-shaped rim of the 
mighty Shrine. There was turquoise every- 
where. He found the hole and learned for 
the first time that the Shrine was protected 
by water from some mysterious subterran- 
ean source. 

Hoshteen got together a group of devil- 
may-care young Navajo, and working with 
poles, rude ladders and grass ropes, suc- 
ceeded in getting two men down inside the 
Shrine. 

Jubilant shouts echoed to the mouth 
above them. Handfuls of turquoise were 
raked from cracks in the rocks. They re- 
ported the water in the bottom was cold 
but clear. They could see heaped piles of 
turquoise and figurines carved of rock and 
gjstn stones. As far as they could determine 
(here was no outlet for the water. 

One of the two youths announced that 
he would drop lower down. He placed the 
wut'lit of one foot on a slimy crack, 
slipped and went screaming to the bot- 
tom. While his cry still rang in the air a 



crevice in the side wall high over the head 
of the second man erupted in a great roar 
of wind and water. 

All of the poles, ropes and cross-braces 
plunged downward in a flash. The water 
surged to the rim for several minutes. As 
it began to subside, the frightened Navajo 
above got a brief glimpse of the broken 
bodies of their two companions, ropes and 
poles. The surging water drained down 
and everything disappeared completely, 
leaving only emptiness and a small amount 
of water in the bottom. 

The Turquoise Shrine had finally been 
entered. But this tragedy forced Hoshteen 
to abandon atempts to obtain the blue and 
green "diamonds of the Southwest." 

Later another man, Redshirt, took up 
the quest. He studied the hole with par- 
ticular care. He observed that the water 
rushed in and out of the Shrine at regular 
intervals. This indicated that one man 
could possibly work swiftly a few moments 
and then be withdrawn in time to evade 
the force of the water. 

Getting together a band of helpers, Rcd- 
shirt contrived a log windlass fitted with 
a long rope. His helpers let him down on 
this to the bottom. Redshirt started scoop- 
ing turquoise into the sack with both 
hands. 

Suddenly he stopped working, turning 
his head to yell upward. 

"Pull me up," he shouted, "There are 
bones of men among the stones. Many of 
them. Pull me up fast!" 

The windlass men heaved-to in a hurry. 
Redshirt started upward on the rope about 



twice as fast as he came down. Even so he 
got no more than a few feet toward the top 
when all hell broke loose below. The hole 
filled with a mighty rush of water from 
several cracks in the wall. It boiled an- 
grily almost to the rim above. 

The windlass men had the handles 
jerked out of their hands. They seized 
them again but the windlass ran free. The 
broken end of the rope came up out of 
the water. Somewhere Redshirt had been 
sucked into a hole, and the rope which had 
been tied about his body, severed over a 
sharp edge "of stone. Obviously Redshirt 
had miscalculated the timing of the sub- 
terranean geyser. 

Later, two more efforts were made to re- 
cover the gem stones but both of them end- 
ed in tragedy. 

With the men who saw Redshirt vanish, 
and present at the next two disasters was 
a small boy, Todachene Nez, The Tur- 
quoise Shrine held a strange fascination for 
him. Two years after the fourth try, when 
he was ten years old, he found a way to get 
up on die massive rock without too much 
difficulty. (A trail which later scaled off.) 

He would lie on the curving rock peer- 
ing into the Shrine for hours, when he 
was supposed to be herding sheep in the 
canyon close by. He learned many things 
about it. Time passed. He grew up, mar- 
ried and had a family of his own, but he 
still observed the strange action of the 
water in the hole. 

All this study revealed to him that dur- 
ing wet years, or early in the spring after 
the heavy snows melted about the canyon, 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



19 



the water was stronger than at any other 
time. The reverse of this was true during 
years of little rain or snowfall. After a year 
of drouth there was hardly any force to 
the water in the Shrine, though the wind 
still rushed from the subterranean pass- 
ages. Moreover, at certain seasons of the 
year water hardly more than trickled into 
the hole. 

In the early 1930's following a very dry 
yc-af; Todachene Nez decided the time had 
come when he should make use of this 
knowledge. He studied the Shrine for two 
weeks, confirming his calculations. Some- 
days no water entered the bottom of the 
hole. 

Todachene Nez got two relatives to 
work a windlass, and tied to the end of the 
rope he went over into the Shrine. A small 
cotton rope was let down to him to which 
he tied two seamless sacks. 

The two men above could see him stand- 
ing knee deep in water and what looked 
like debris. While working he could be 
seen looking around constantly. 

So far he had been standing in the exact 
spot where he first touched the bottom. 
Now he started to move. When he shifted 



one foot Todachene Nez slipped and fell, 
landing on his back. He could be seen 
swaying like a drunken man as he scram- 
bled up. Indeed, the entire bottom of the 
hole appeared to be jerking around. 

Todachene yelled something up out of 
the hole. But his voice only boomed and 
died in a rush of water from a crevice in 
the side of the wall above his head. At 
once the two Navajo worked the windlass. 
They pui led Todachene a dozen or so feet 
when a second roar, of water filled the hole. 
Yet up through this they yanked Toda- 
chene Ne2, half drowned. 

The rope attached to I he sacks disap- 
peared as the water boiled and raged all 
the way to the rim. 

The water was still surging when Toda- 
chene Nez recovered. His companions 
asked him repeatedly what happened 
down below. Instead of replying he 
walked over and jerked the windlass free, 
dropping it over into the Shrine. 

"What did happen down there?" 1 
asked him while wc- explored the top of 
the Shrine. 

He shook his head with a wry grin. 

"I don't know," he said. "Truly I don't. 



your Photo Contest . . . 

Desert Magazine's monthly photo contest is open to you, whether you 
are cm amateur or professional photographer. And you can choose ihe 
subject so long as ii is essentially of ihe desert. It doesn't matter whether 
you took the picture yesterday or ten years ago — the best print wins. 
Pictures are judged an suitability for magazine reproduction, originality, 
subject interest and technical quality. 

Entries for this month's contest must be in the Desert Magazine office, 
El Centra, California, by February 20 and winning prints will appear in 
the April issue. First prize is $10; second prize, $5. For non-winning pic- 
tures accepted for publication, $2 each will be paid. 

HERE ARE THE RULES 

1 — Prints Jor monthly contests must be black and white. 5x7 or larger, 
printed on glossy paper. 

2— Each photograph submitted should be fully labeled as to subject, 
time and place. Also technical data: camera, shutter speed, hour of day. etc. 

3— PRINTS WILL BE RETURNED ONLY WHEN RETURN POSTAGE IS 
ENCLOSED. 

4 — All entries must be in the Desert Magazine office by the 20th of the 
contest month. 

5 — Contests are open to both amateur and professional photographers. 
Desert Magazine requires first publication rights only of prize winning 
pictures. 

6— Time and place of photograph are immaterial, except that it must 
be from the desert Southwest. 

7 — Judges will be selected from Desert's editorial staff, and awards will 
be made immediately after the close of the contest each month. 

ADDRESS ALL ENTRIES TO PHOTO EDITOR, DESERT MAGAZINE, 



THE 




mflGHZine 



EL CENTRO, CALIFORNIA 



When I took that step, I discovered f was 
not on the actual bottom. More like on a 
balanced rock. It scared me. As 1 fell 1 
could hear wind and water roaring away 
off towards the northeast part of the rock. 
I could see a great black cavern. 

"I realized then that despite all my years 
of observing the Shrine of the Old Ones, 
that I knew nothing about it at all. I heard 
the water coming, and only wanted to get 
out of there, f am lucky to be alive today! 

"I have no wish now to rob this Shrine." 

What did he see down in the bottom? 
Todachene Nez talked about that. In his 
hands as he tried to fill the sacks had been 
small and large pieces of turquoise, some 
of it mere lumps, unpolished. A lot of it 
had been cut into shape for beads, earrings. 
It had been polished roughly, and drilled 
with holes. Some of the offerings to the 
Shrine must have been matched strands of 
beads and earrings of immense value. 
Along with all this was also small carved 
figures of white, black and red stones 
along with some quartz. 

"The small figures were like those the 
pueblo Indians of New Mexico make to- 
day," he said. 

We found a few pieces of turquoise on 
the top that day, which had been brought 
up from below. Most of them were drilled 
pieces that had been strung as necklaces. 
One stone, still bearing some evidence of a 
high polish, was over two inches long and 
expertly shaped. 

Hundreds of years ago the A hfu.w ir~j c 
must have cast some of their best pieces of 
aboriginal jewelry into the Turquoise 
Shrine. Without doubt it is a veritable 
treasure house. There are few traders in 
the western Navajo country who have not 
at one time or another bought what they 
believed to be rough turquoise that came 
from a robbed grave. Actually they pur- 
chased turquoise from this shrine that had 
been brought up to the top of the rock and 
blown over to the canyon floor by the wind 
where it was found. 

That day I came away with Todachene 
Nez, having solved the location of the 
fabled Turquoise Shrine, But soon the war 
intervened and four years later when I 
went back with Todachene Nez, he asked 
that secret of its location be kept Ion i;l r 

Why? 

"You remember the bubbling ■ipring in 
Jones canyon only a little way off?" he 
asked. "Even in my time it used to leap 10 
to 1 2 feet in the air. Now hardly any water 
seeps out of the ground where it used to 
be. So it is with the water in the Shrine of 
the Old Ones. One day before many more 
years pass, this cavern will be dry." 

I could follow his train of thought. Be- 
fore Todachene Nez goes to the Sky Peo- 
ple, he will have solved the final secret of 
the Turquoise Shrine by bringing out a few 
sacks filled with the gem stone of lK- pre- 
historic Indians. 

To Todachene Nez I say, "It is your se- 
cret. Keep it!" 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



' There is always a little blue in the eyes of all 
races when their gaze is uplifted toward the sky." 
Thus, in one of his books, Paul Coze expressed a 
philosophy which explains why the Indian tribes- 
men of Canada and the Southwest have accepted 
him as a friend and brother. Here is the story of a 
French artist who has adopted the Southwest as his 
home — and of whom the Southwest is proud. 



Paul ca^e — 
7tiend. ok the 



By HOPE 




Pa ii I Coze — burn hi Syria he later organized the Boy 
Scout mot ewe nt in France, and eventually came to the 
South west through his friendship for Tom Dodge, son of 
the I ale Naiajo chieftain, Cbee Dodge. 



GILBERT 



/yLONG the infrequently traveled 
f / road north of Hotevilla a line of 
Navajo and Hopi wagons was pro- 
ceeding at a leisurely pace. The occasion 
for this J ate summer trek of Hopis from 
their three mesas and of Navajo from sur- 
rounding reservations was a Black Whis- 
kers Katchina dance at Moencopi, daugh- 
ter pueblo of Oraibi. The heat rising in 
waves from the sun-baked desert envel- 
oped in dazzling brilliance the one auto- 
mobile that was crawling along midway 
in the line of horse-drawn vehicles. 

Suddenly the car drew up to the side of 
the road and from it emerged an aged 
Hopi and a white man. The Indians in 
their wagons were startled into wide-eyed 
amazement as they watched the tall 
stranger take a stand at the side of the road 
and to the accompaniment of a torn be be- 
gin a high-pitched Indian song. His Hopi 
companion, listening in rapt attention, de- 
manded a repetition of the chant. After a 
third rendition the old man triumphantly 
repeated the entire song with its strange, 
syncopated rhythm. 

In his Pasadena studio, Paul Coze re- 
counted to me his experiences on that fes- 
tive day when he had taught a Ctee Round 



dance song to the old Oraibi katchina mak- 
er. Pointing to a tall Hopi tombe he- re- 
marked, "There is something I literally 
obtained 'for a song,' On our return to 
Oraibi, after attending the katchina dance 
at Moencopi, my old Hopi friend present- 
ed this drum to me in return for having 
taught him the song which I had learned 
during my sojourn among the Canadian 
Crees. The old fellow took great pride in 
teaching it to the people of Oraibi. The 
pueblo apparently added it to their per- 
manent repertory, for some years later 
when I again visited the village, perched 
high on the desert mesa, they were still 
singing it." 

Paul's studio was filled with colorful re- 
minders of his numerous sojourns among 
the Indians of Canada and of our own 
Southwest — Hopi katchinas, baskets, ollas, 
sketches and paintings by Indian artists as 
well as by himself. Four eagle feathers 
standing upright on a shelf piqued my 
curiosity. "Those," Paul explained, "sym- 
bolize the name Neow-Kicaneow, Four 
Eagle Feathers, which the Cree Indians 
gave me when they initiated me and made 
me their blood brother in a sweat-lodge 
ceremony," 



Ethnologist, lecturer, author of several 
volumes on the Indians, one of which has 
been crowned by the French Academy, an 
artist whose portraits of Indians and 
studies of horses and cowboys hang in 
many museums and private collections, one 
of the founders of the Boy Scout movement 
in France, founder of the French Wakanda 
clubs, originator of the novel cowboy polo 
game called "Choi la," Paul Coze is a per- 
son of dynamic energy and enthusiasm for 
his adopted country. 

He is one of those rare individuals who 
not only knows his subject matter thor- 
oughly from the academic point of view, 
but who can graphically demonstrate what 
he is describing, whether it be the tech- 
nique of painting, an Indian dance 
rhythm, or a demonstration of trick rop- 
ing. Paul's art students, busily painting in 
the adjoining studios at the time of my in- 
terview with him, no doubt chuckled as 
they heard their instructor chanting for 
my benefit, with remarkably realistic in- 
tonation and pitch, various songs of the 
Hopis, Crees, and Navajo. 

Paul's wife, a charming young Danish 
woman, gave me an amusing sidelight on 
her husband's talent for impersonating 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



21 




Working m his role as technical director of "The Razor's Edge," produced by 

20lh CeMury-Fox. 



Indians. It was in Phoenix, during the 
early years of the war, that he was asked 
to give a demonstration of Indian dances. 
Dressed in authentic Indian regalia, and 
with his dark hair and eyes and slightly 
aquiline nose, he looked like a genuine 
redskin. When, following a spirited group 
of dances, he was presented to the audi- 
ence as the former Boy Scout commissioner 
of France, some visiting British fliers lit- 
erally keeled over in astonishment. 

From boy scouting in Egypt and France 
to ethnological research in Arizona and 
New Mexico may seem a far cry. But it 
was his early boyhood interest in scouting 
and all phases of outdoor life that indi- 
rectly led him to our Southwest. 

Paul Coze was born of French and Rus- 
sian parents in Beirut, Syria, in 1903. His 
mother was the Princess Dabija Kotro- 
manitch whose family were rulers of Bos- 
nia, Croatia, and Moldavia in the 1 4th and 
15th centuries. Forced into exile by the 



Turkish subjugation, his mother's family 
took up residence in Russia, and from 
1812 until the revolution were members 
of the Czar's court. Paul's paternal grand- 
father, Dr. Rosier Coze, was a scientist 
who founded the medical school of Stras- 
bourg and is known for his metaphysical 
writings. In Paul Coze are combined the 
intelligence, initiative, and engaging per- 
sonality of the two family strains. His only 
brother Marcel, an engineer in France, 
enjoys recalling the prophecy which an old 
Syrian soothsayer related to the father be- 
fore his sons were born. "You will be 
blessed with two sons," predicted the seer ; 
"one will be intelligent and the other will 
be famous." The elder brother twits Paul 
by asserting, "It worked out just as the old 
fellow said: you are famous, and I am in- 
telligent!" 

As a small boy in Alexandria, Egypt, 
where his parents were then living, Paul 
first became interested in the new Boy 



Scout movement. Being an avid reader, he 
read all he could lay his hands on concern- 
ing Indians and cowboys, and determined 
some day to visit the New World and learn 
at first hand about these fascinating fea- 
tures of Western life. 

Shortly before World War I, he went 
from Egypt to France to continue his edu- 
cation. There he interested the French 
Canon Cornette in scouting, and the 
movement was launched. Later on, Paul 
became national Commissioner of Boy 
Scouts of France, he wrote many hand- 
books for them, and for several years was 
editor of the Boy Scout newspaper. 

In 1930 he was commissioned by the 
Museum of Natural History of Paris (the 
former Trocadero) to conduct an ethno- 
graphic expedition to Canada. For six 
months he and a group of young men 
studied the tribes of western Canada. The 
exhibit at the Trocadero of artifacts, Indian 
portrait paintings, photographs, motion 
pictures and documents secured during his 
first visit in Canada, aroused great interest 
in Paris. 

During several seasons spent among the 
Canadian Indians, Paul Coze was made a 
member of six tribes in recognition of his 
friendship for them, and his scholarly 
books and lectures concerning them. 

A trip to Washington in 1934, in the 
interest of boy scouting, brought him into 
contact with the American Indian bureau. 
There he met John Collier, Indian com- 
missioner, and Tom Dodge, son of the 
late Navajo chief Henry Chee Dodge, both 
of whom told him he hadn't seen real In- 
dian country until he had visited the 
Southwest. 

His meeting with Tom Dodge occurred 
under unconventional circumstances. Paul 
was informally relating in an office of the 
Indian bureau some of his experiences 
among the Crees, when a member of the 
bureau interrupted him to ask, "Do you 
believe there are any Indians who love the 
white man?" Paul's forthright rejoinder, 
"I doubt it. Moreover, why should they?" 
evoked a hearty laugh from someone wait- 
ing in the office. The person who had ov- 
erheard and been impressed by this open 
criticism in the very sanctum of the In- 
dian bureau proved to be the young Na- 
vajo leader who was visiting Washington 
in behalf of his tribesmen. Paul's friend- 
ship with Tom Dodge stemmed from that 
moment. 

The opportunity to visit and study the 
Southwestern Indian country under the 
guidance of this educated Navajo was now 
eagerly accepted by Paul. Between 1934 
and the outbreak of World War II he 
spent part of almost every year oo the In- 
dian reservations of New Mexico and Ari- 
zona. 

An incident occurring on the occasion of 
his first visit at Taos pueblo reveals Paul 
Coze's sympathetic approach toward the 
Indians. 

"It was on September 30th. day of their 



22 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



patron San Geronimo, that I first visited 
Taos," Paul related. "The pueblo was in 
festive mood, and I was very anxious to 
secure some good documentary photo- 
graphs of the festivities, I had been assured 
by numerous persons in Santa Fe that with 
ready money it was possible to obtain any- 
thing one desired in Taos. 

"As the ceremonial dancers appeared in 
the plaza before the church, I adjusted my 
camera into position. Before I had suc- 
ceeded in making the first shot, an Indian 
descended upon me demanding whether I 
had authorization to take pictures. I re- 
plied that I had paid the dollar fee. 'You 
no take pictures of dances — only views of 
pueblo!' he informed me tersely, 

"At dawn the next morning the races 
began along a course in front of the North 
House. For hours I had been sitting like a 
wooden saint cramped into a small space 
on one of the terraced roofs. As f pre- 
pared to descend, two gnarled old hands 
seized me. 'No pictures of dances!' he 
warned me. 'But these are not dances; 
these are races,' I countered. 'No, no, races 
are dances,' he insisted. 

"1 descended and began mingling with 
the crowd. I met my cowboy friend, Frank, 
who suggested that I camouflage my cam- 
era with my leather coat, while he stood 
nonchalantly by, shielding me from ob- 
serving eyes. The morning passed without 
incident. No one seemed to notice my pic- 
ture taking now. In the afternoon the 
crowd milled around in anticipation of the 
final event, a pole climbing contest. 

"In the central plaza a tall greased pole 
had been erected. Near the top had been 
assembled a prize collection of food prod- 
ucts, including a sheep, melons and corn. 
Finally the clowns appeared, clad only in 
loin cloth, their bodies smeared with ashes 
and dead corn stalks tied to their hair. 
They were armed with bows and arrows. 
After numerous amusing antics the group 
of clowns gathered about the pole. Making 
a mass assault upon the pole, to the great 
merriment of the crowd, they had but 
slight success in making headway up the 
slippery mast. Some of the performers 
raced off in search of a ladder which they 
now proceeded to adjust against the pole. 
As one of the clowns raced up the ladder 
a rung broke and the fellow fell flat, add- 
ing further to the general merriment. An- 
other ladder reaching but part way up the 
pole was now put into position. As one of 
the clowns was on the point of attaining 
the top, I came out into the open and in- 
stalled myself on top of my car, from where 
I could take excellent pictures. 

"Suddenly there was a movement at my 
back. The next instant I found myself 
thrust roughly to the ground. A hand 
seized my feet and a second hand grasped 
my belt. Another furious Indian snatched 
my camera. The crowd of onlookers drew 
back in alarm. 

"My attackers shouted, "It is because of 
you that they cannot climb the pole! You 




Dancer of Taos — where the greased pule episode related in this story took place. 



shall go before the Governor and explain 
why you have disobeyed our orders!' 

"As no one came to my aid I was sum- 
marily taken off to what fate I did net 
know. I was led to the end of the village 
and taken into a room where the sight of a 
knotted lasso of agave fiber caused a mo- 
mentary chill to run up and down my 
spine. Had I been misinformed, I began to 
wonder, as to the power of money in Taos? 

"The jury entered, six impassive and 
silent old men. A young man was the in- 
terpreter. After interminable minutes in 
which seven pairs of eyes all contemplated 
me in silence, one of the ancient ones fin- 
ally spoke. 

" 'Why did you disobey?' the young 
man interpreted. I replied that I had paid 
the dollar fee and that I had merely been 
warned not to photograph the sacred rites. 
I did not suppose I was violating any 
sacred ceremony in photographing the 
clowns. 

" 'The clowns arc priests and the ascent 
of the pole is a sacred rite,' the interpreter 
informed me. 'You have violated our laws 



and have stolen a part of the Power. You 
are responsible for the failure of the priests 
to reach the summit!' 

"I was bereft of words. The thought that 
I had the power to freeze the harvest, to 
drive away game, to dry up melons, and 
to cause diseases among the flocks, would 
have been absurd had the situation not 
been so fraught with gravity. 

" You must pay,' was the verdict. 

"So that is how matters stand, I thought 
to myself. I took out my wallet 'How 
much?' I asked. 

"From under his blanket one of the old 
men brought out my camera and placed it 
before us. 

" 'We wish no money,' the interpreter 
explained the old man's actions, 'You must 
make reparation.' 

"I was astonished. My white friends, 
then, were wrong. These Indians could not 
be bought. Their ancient traditions and 
ceremonies meant more to them than any 
amount of money. I rose and spoke to the 
small assemblage of men, I do not know 
what you demand of me in reparation. But 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



Corn Dance at San lldefonso ptteblo. Paul Coze sketched this scene at the pueblo it? 
September. 1947, and completed the painting in his Pasadena studio. 



I want you to know that at last I under- 
stand you, and that with all my being I 
honor you, A people that disowns its tra- 
ditions is done for. You are remaining 
faithful to yours while adapting to your 
way of life the mechanical progress of the 
whites. I congratulate you, and to prove 
my friendship I make this reparation.' 
With these words I removed the exposed 
films from the camera and placed them 
before the Indian council. 

"The Indian spokesman then took the 
empty camera and returned it to me, speak- 
in g ill some length. When he ceased speak- 
ing, the interpreter spoke, 'You have un- 
derstood and respected our beliefs and we 
thank you. May all white men try to do the 
same, and not force us into their way of 
thinking. There are many things in the 
lift of the spirit that we know and that the 
white man has forgotten.' Cryptically he 
added. To mount the sacred mast a ladder 
is not always sufficient.' 

"The old man fell silent," concluded 
Paul, "and I left with my camera empty 
but with my heart full. To seal my newly 
won friendship with them I promised to 



send to them for their next dance four 
eagle feathers, symbolic of my own In- 
dian name." 

From his years of experience as a world 
traveler and as a student of the American 
Indian, Paul Coze has drawn a significant 
conclusion in his book L'Oiseatt Ton nerve, 
a conclusion which may well be pondered 
by ail thoughtful people: "There is always 
a little blue in the eyes of all races when 
their gaze is uplifted toward the sky." 

HOMESTEAD LANDS OPENED 
IN MOJAVE DESERT AREA 

Additional information on land now 
open for homesteading on the Mojave des- 
ert has been released by Fred W. Johnson, 
district land office, department of the in- 
terior, Los Angeles. One block, seven 
miles wide by six miles long, starts approx- 
imately three miles north of Mitchell's 
Caverns, which are 22 miles northwest of 
Essex, 

The second block described lies about 
three miles west of Mitchell's Caverns, and 
is approximately three by seven miles in 
area. This land is almost adjacent to the 



ghost town of Providence, where the Bo- 
nanza King mine produced an estimated 
560,000,000. Mining operations were 
started about 1865 and six miles of tunnels 
were dug. The old Dominguez ranch is in 
the same area and there are such scenic at- 
tractions as the Indian wind caves and 
Hole in the Wall. 

Both blocks lie in the Providence moun- 
tains area, and the Bar stow Ptinter-Review 
describes them as "the first desirable land 
opened to homesteading on the desert in 
20 years." According to announcement, 
I he lands were opened both to regular 
homesteading of 160 acres and to jackrab- 
bit homesteading of five acres. Opening 
date was December 2, with 90 day prefer- 
ence filing rights for veterans of World 
War II. Commencing at 10 a. m. Tuesday, 
March 2, 1948, any lands remaining un- 
appropriated will become subject to filing 
by the general public. Applications by the 
general public may be made during a 20 
day advance filing period beginning 
February 1 1, and all such applications to- 
gether with those filed at 10 a. m. March 
2, will be treated as simultaneously filed. 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 




December Prize Photos . . . 

For its December photo contest, Desert Magazine 
asked its readers to send in portraits of small desert 
folk, from insects to mammals. 

FIRST PRIZE was awarded to Martin Litton, Culver 
City, California, for his picture (top) of a Leopard 
lizard photographed in southern Nevada near Davis 
dam site. The subject posed voluntarily and a 2V^3 1 A 
Speed Graphic was used. 

SECOND PRIZE was awarded two photos. E. R. 
Tinkham, Tucson, Arizona, photographed the West- 
ern Toad (above) at Benson, Arizona, with a Zeiss 
Ikon camera, 1 ''SO sec. exposure at f , 1 1 . It was taken 
on PIus-X film late in the afternoon. 

TIED FOR SECOND was Robert Leatherman, San 
Bernardino, with his portrait (right) of the desert spot- 
fed skunk. The shot was taken with a Crown Graphic 
at I 400 sec, f.8, using a No. 5 flash at 7:15 p. m. 

FEBRUARY, 1948 




Jerome, Arizona . . . 

A small mineralized area which it is 
economically feasible to mine at present 
prices has been found at the 4500 foot 
level at Jerome, according to H. M. Laven- 
der, vice-president and general manager of 
the Phelps Dodge corporation. This area, 
largely copper, will keep Jerome active for 
at least another eight months, Lavender 
said. In 1945 the company announced that 
mining would be stopped at the camp in a 
few years due to lack of high grade ore. 
Since that time a reported $1,000 000 has 
been spent for explorations in the lower 
levels there. 

• ■ ■ 

Austin. Nevada . . . 

Nevada Equity Mining company is said 
to have obtained operating control of the 
old Lander Hill group of claims which 
have produced an estimated 530.000,000 
in silver. This expands the company's 
holdings to 61 claims, including the Lan- 
der Hill, Nevada Equity and Escobar 
groups, the first time these properties have 
been consolidated, according to the Reese 
liner Reveille, Machinery is being in- 
stalled on the claims and Austin old-timers 
are looking for a new boom at the famous 
silver camp, 

• * • 

Goldiield, Nevada . . . 

Unconfirmed reports indicate the string- 
ers of gold ore which Newmont Deep 
Mines operations cut last June while do- 
ing development work have widened to 
four feet of ore. Officials believe the vein 
may be a continuation of the rich ledge 
struck recently. Point of entry for the new 
strike is about 450 feet from White rock 
shaft. The seams first cut assayed up to 
Si 200 a ton, and company officials are said 
to have been working since June to deter- 
mine the size of the mineralized area, but 
were hampered by wet ground and caveins. 

■ • • 

Phoenix, Arizona . . . 

Only four per cent of Arizona's 73,015.- 
669 acres have been intensively prospect- 
ed, according to a booklet issued by Phoe- 
nix chamber of commerce. One per cent 
of the area has been investigated geo- 
physically. The first recorded mineral dis- 
covery in the state occurred in 1 58 3. and 
in 364 years total mineral output has been 
13.897,030,072. The 16-page booklet is 
illustrated with pictures of Jerome. Ajo, 
Bisbee and other Arizona mines, 

■ • ■ 

Effective January 1, 1948, under new 
tariff regulations the import duty on tung- 
sten ore will be reduced from 50 cents to 
38 cents per pound of tungsten contained. 




Goldiield, Nevada . . . 

Charges that the talc industry is com- 
pletely dominated by a handful of large 
mining concerns who set the price and 
have so cornered the market that no inde- 
pendent can sell his product, have been 
made by an unidentified independent talc 
producer quoted in the Goldfield News. 
As a result, he declares, the independent 
virtually has been driven from business in 
that section of Nevada, although 28 were 
in operation there during the war when 
their output was purchased by the govern- 
ment. He suggests investigation by an im- 
partial federal agency. 

■ * • 

Luriing, Nevada . . . 

Girard Crawford of Bishop. California, 
recently relocated diggings in the Rawhide 
district which were worked by his father 
40 years ago. Crawford, accompanied by 
W. D. Edds of Luning, took an army am- 
munition wagon and drove through dozens 
of canvons before he spotted a landmark 
his father had described. The vein, found 
after climbing a 2000 foot peak then drop- 
ping to a lower hill, was of azurite and 
malachite. Crawford declares that mining 
nf the ore would not be profitable, but he 
hopes to bring out enough for fireplace 
and mantle decorations. 

ft ft * 

Silver City, New Mexico . , , 

Pinos Altos, legendary camp of the past 
century, is the scene of renewed activity but 
copper has replaced gold and silver. The 
Pinos Altos Mining company reportedly 
has purchased a group of claims compris- 
ing 400 acres from Homestead Mining 
company, and is moving machinery onto 
the ground to start larger operations. Lit- 
tle evidence remains of the old camp where 
precious metals estimated up to $20,000.- 
000 were mined. 

• • • 

Reno, Nevada . , . 

Imperial Lead Mines, Inc., has pur- 
chased the properties of the Union Lead 
and Smelting company, formerly known as 
the Commonwealth mine, which shipped 
ore with a gross value of $600,000 during 
World War II, The new company, a Ne- 
vada corporation, reportedly is completing 
construction of a selective flotation plant 
designed to treat up to 200 tons of ore per 
dav near Steamboat Springs. 13 miles 
snurh of Reno. The Commonwealth is one 
of I he oldest mines in Nevada, having been 
patented in the '60s. 

* • * 
Salt Lake City, Utah . . . 

Henry J, Kaiser interests have made the 
conditional purchase of the iron blast fur- 
nace at Ironton, Utah, and the coke plant 



of 500 beehive ovens near Sunnyside, 
Utah, according to announcements here. 
Purchase was made from the Wat Assets 
administration for $1,150,000, with down 
payment of one per cent, Jack L. Ashby, 
Kaiser company vice-president states. 
Company representatives have been in 
Utah studying problems of raw materials, 
water, power and transportation -which 
must be met before purchase is completed, 

* ■ • 

Yermo, California . . . 

Beard's Agricultural Minerals Com- 
pany, Inc., has bought the B. E. Apte mill 
at Yermo, and plans to mine and process 
local deposits of lime and other minerals 
for use in agriculture. Conveyers, rail bins, 
sacking machines and a rotating calciner 
have been purchased for installation. The 
corporation owns phosphate and potash 
mines in Idaho and Utah, and complete 
concentration of minerals into fertilizer 
mixes will be made at the Yermo plant, it 
was announced. 

■ ■ ■ 

Moot. Utah . . . 

Former employes of the Sego mine of 
the Chesterfield Coal company bought the 
mine and personal property at a sheriff's 
sale in Moab and plan to operate the prop- 
erties at full capacity. Louis Reese, former 
superintendent of the Chesterfield com- 
pany, acting for himself and practically all 
the former employes, entered the high bid 
of $30,010. The new company, being in- 
corporated under Utah state laws, will be 
known as Utah Grand Coal company. The 
Sego mine was closed when the Chester- 
field company became involved in litiga- 
tion. 

* ■ ■ 

A jade nugget weighing 600 pounds 
was reportedly discovered near Jade moun- 
tain, Alaska, by Harry M. Coleman and 
George E. Van Hagan, Chicago men on an 
eight day prospecting trip. The jade, be- 
ing shipped to Chicago, is believed to be 
the largest piece of gem quality yet found 
in Alaska. 

■ * • 

Bentonite, a clay used in oil filtering 
and for other commercial purposes, is be- 
ing mined three miles southeast of Ker- 
sarge, Inyo county, California, according to 
R. L. Palmer. Palmer and Jim Nikolaus 
reportedly are shipping from both open 
pit and underground operations on the 
claims owned by Jack and Irene Burkhardt 
and Ray Wilson. 

* • * 

Perseverance lead-silver mine, located in 
the Sylvan i a district, southwestern Esmer- 
alda county, Nevada, has been sold to 
C M. Zabriskie, Salt Lake mining man. 
Old rock cabins and charcoal piles on the 
site when the mine was discovered in 1870 
indicated earlier workings, possibly by 
Spaniards. In 1904, 35 men were em- 
ployed at the mine, then known as the 
Bullion. 



26 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 




The GiU woo 



had his of poise. 



am 




Story and pictures by IRENE OLIN 



HREE of the most frequent and 
/ friendly visitors at our camps in 
the desert country where cactus was 
plentiful, were the curve-billed thrasher, 
the cactus wren and the Gila woodpecker. 
It could not be said they were very friend- 
ly with each other but generally they were 
together, 

Wishing to become well acquainted 
with desert wild life, we felt that offerings 
of food would show our friendly inten- 
tions. We put a large stalk of dead cholla 
in the ground. In the top a cavity was hol- 
lowed out where we sank a cup which was 
kept filled with hen scratch, a mixture of 
several kinds of grain. Small pieces of beef 



suet were placed in the holes in the trunk. 
These birds did not seem to care for bread, 
but the Gila woodpecker's choice was hot- 
cake, which aiso was placed in the holes 
in the trunk. We put a cup of water near, 
and the birds drank from it often. 

At frequent periods during the day we 
would observe one bird fly in. Almost im- 
mediately about four wrens, one or two 
thrashers and a pair of Gila woodpeckers 
would follow. Often there also would be* a 
pair of brown towhees, a verdin or two, a 
little rock wren and sometimes the beau- 
tiful desert sparrow. Each species had a 
personality all its own. 

The thrasher had a bold, swaggering 



It was no ordinary portrait 
studio that Irene Olin set up be- 
side her camp in Tucson Moun- 
tain park and her subjects, the 
desert birds, did not know that 
they were posing. But they 
seemed more than satisfied with 
wages of suet, grain and flap- 
jacks. And while the photo- 
grapher, 35 feet bom her press 
camera, tripped the shutter with 
a fine fish line, she was learning 
a great deal about the personali- 
ties of the bullying curved-bill 
thrasher, the inquisitive cactus 
wren and the alert Gila wood- 
pecker. 

For the information of photo- 
graphers, pictures were taken 
with a 4x5 press camera, using 
high-speed panchromatic film. 
Shutter speed was 1 50 sec av- 
erage lens opening f.22 with a 
medium yellow filter and the 
camera was about 18 inches 
from the birds. 



manner and constantly chased other small- 
er birds. The cactus wrens, in a matter-ol- 
fact way, flew or hopped just out of his 
reach, while the towhees flew excitedly 
away and complained loudly for several 
minutes. We suspected the thrasher was 
mostly bully because when the Gila wood- 
pecker opened his bill at him, he moved 
immediately. 

Uninvited chipmunks partook of the 
feast which we had spread for the birds. 
Day after day the thrasher flew at them and 
dogged them until they gave up and went 
home. One day Father Chipmunk tired of 
this and turned on the thrasher in a furi- 
ous rage. What took place was too fast for 
the human eye, but a few feathers flew, the 
thrasher hurriedly retreated to the top of 
the cholla stalk, angrily gulped a piece of 
suet that nearly choked him, then flew 
away. 

The thrasher is a slim and sleek appear- 
ing bird from IOV2 to IIV2 inches long, 
with a long decurved bill, dull grey-brown 
back, cinnamon -tinged belly, a faintly- 
spotted breast and a striking pale orange 
eye. It has a beautiful whistle, loud and 
liquid, and a soft, sweet song it sings to it- 
self as it sits in a cactus during siesta time. 

Most of the day the thrasher stayed near 
the food and would not fly from us until 
we were very close. But it would not come 
to our camp as the Gila woodpeckers did, 
or into the tent-kitchen like the wrens. It 
preferred grain and scooped out onto the 
ground the kinds it did not like. It spent 
much time tearing up the earth under the 
chollas with its long curved bill, in search 
of food. It frequently makes its nest in the 
chollas. While we admired the thrashers, 
they did not have the friendly appeal of the 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



Gilas ur inspire the affection the wrens 
did. 

The cactus wrens were friendly and curi- 
ous, flvery morning before we arose they 
would come into the tent-kitchen and in- 
spect everything. Upon returning to camp 
after short trips we would find a network 
of wren tracks on the earth floor. 

After several days, when the birds be- 
came used to their table, we set up a cam- 
era to take some pictures of them. It was 
covered on the hack with a black cloth to 
prevent light leak, and we rather feared 
the bulky thing might frighten the birds 
away. But we scarcely had reached the tent- 
kitchen when the wrens flew onto the cam- 
era, diligently looked it over, and even 
tried to get under the cloth. 

The cactus wren is a pretty bird and 
rather large for one of the genus, being 



J® 




from " to 8V2 inches long. It has a rich 
brown head, greyish-brown back streaked 
with white, a white streak extending from 
the bill over the eye, heavy black spots on 
a greyish throat and breast, reddish-brown 
belly and long rounded tail. The song of 
the cactus wren is decidedly not musical 
but it will sit in the top of a bush and put 
just as much heart into a rendition as any 
other bird. 

Its nest looks like a roll of sticks and 
grass securely fastened horizontally among 
the cholla joints with the opening at one 
end. The wren also is somewhat of 2 
mimic. We have seen one watch the man- 
ner in which the Gila woodpecker select- 
ed a piece of hotcake and flew off with it, 
and then do the same thing in exactly the 
same way. They ate only small amounts of 
each kind of food and like the thrasher 
spent a good deal of time searching the 
ground underneath the chollas. 

After seeing some of the brilliant black 
and white woodpeckers with vivid red 
heads, the Gila woodpecker does not ap- 
pear particularly pretty at first. Actually 
it is quite a handsome bird. Its colors are 
the rich ones of the desert. It has a brown- 
ish-grey head on which it wears a small 



The l brasher acted like a bully. 

beret of brilliant red, low on its forehead. 
Its breast and belly are a smooth greyish- 
tan and its back is striped with small bars 
of black and white. Its tail is black with 
white bars on the outer feathers and in 
flight it displays a showy spot of white on 
each wing. The female woodpecker is 
dressed the same, except for the red cap. 

This woodpecker was not of nervous 
type and did things in a deliberate manner. 
Hanging to the side of the cholla stalk, it 
would select a piece of hotcake or suet, 
look carefully in several directions and fly 
away to hide the morsel. Sometimes it 
would only transfer the piece to another 
hole in the trunk. It drank often. Leaning 
back with its tail as a prop, it would dip 
up a bill full of water, look around leisure- 
ly with the drops of water glistening on its 
bill, and then dtp up another drink. 

It would sit on the woodpile or hang in 
a bush near us and watch us closely. If 
there was no food in the cholla stalk it 
called to us in a loud voice. In the evening 
it would fly to its nest in a saguaro, sit and 
look around for a bit and then disappear 
for the night. 

Now that we are camped where these 
birds do not live we sincerely miss them. 



They seemed to like to be near us and we 
certainly enjoyed their company, 
■ # * 

RAIN-MAKERS AT WORK 
ON RIM OF DESERT 

Systematic experiments to test the possi- 
bility for artificial rain-making over the 
San Jacinto mountains are being made by 
the Hemet Valley Flying service in co- 
operation with the California Institute of 
Technology and the Riverside county flood 
control and water conservation district. 
Piloted by Hannah and Lloyd M. Venable, 
planes made flights on four different days 
with rain or snow or both directly resulting 
from three of the flights. 

Ground observers as well as pilots re- 
ported precipitation in the direct line of 
the flights within 15 minutes after the 
planes had passed over. On a flight when 
dry ice was released from a point near 
Murietta straight east to the mountains, a 
rainstorm path three miles wide was plain- 
ly visible. On December fi, a sudden heavy 
snowfall occurred 15 minutes after a flight 
over the Idyllwild region. An earlier flight 
over Anza and Aguanga produced rain 
which drifted out over the desert. 



28 



TH.E DESERT MAGAZINE 



The cactus -trreji was \riendly and cttrhns. 




ARIZONA 
He Hunted Geronimo . . . 

TUCSON — "Tucson sure has grown 
up," Charles Holsman, 81, declared upon 
his recent arrival at the Arizona city. Hols- 
man should know. He first saw Tucson in 
1 887, a foot soldier on the trail of the 
dreaded Geronimo. "I guess we walked 
500 miles from the northern to the south- 
ern end of the state and doubled on our 
trail a few times,'' he said. The soldiers 
started from Fort Whipple, took Geroni- 
mo's trail at San Carlos and followed him 
to Showlow, St. Johns, Snow flake. Fort 
Apache, White Mountain reservation 
Black river, back to San Carlos, to Tucson 
and Bowie where he was captured. 



Too Many Homesteaders . . . 

YUMA— When the 90-day filing pe- 
riod closed on December 8, 725 prospec- 
tive settlers, including 693 World War IT 
veterans, had applied for homesteads on 
the Yuma mesa project. Twenty-eight 
farms were available. All applications re- 
ceived will be considered as filed simul- 
taneously. A list of all World War II vet- 
erans meeting minimum requirements for 



_ . . oh tke TbeA&U 

entrymen will be drawn up and names of 
successful applicants will be drawn by lot. 
Each person will be notified personally 
when the boatd acts on his case. 

Doc's Family Feuded Too . . . 

TOMBSTONE — "Doc" Hoi I i day of 
the Earp-Clanton feud probably would 
have had more battles if he had stayed 
home in Georgia, Col, Pope B. HoIIiday, 
Doc's second cousin, said on a recent visit 
to Tombstone. Several of Doc's immediate 
relatives were killed in the Holliday-Thur- 
man feud there, according to Col. Holli- 
day, and it wasn't out of the ordinary for 
one of the boys to get into trouble now and 
then. Doc, fresh out of dental school, head- 
ed West when he found he was tubercular. 
He killed a soldier in Dallas and moved on 
to Tombstone where he apparently decid- 
ed gambling was easier than doctoring 
teeth. 



Want Dam Road . . . 

PARKER — Yuma county board of su- 
pervisors again is attempting to include the 
Parker to Parker dam road, on the Arizona 
side of the river, in the county road system. 
A previous effort was blocked by federal 



objections to the route and protests of two 
property owners. Renewed action was tak- 
en after Parker residents pointed out that a 
barely passable trail connects the two 
points now, and that a good road to Parker 
dam and Havasu lake would benefit every- 
one by opening fine fishing, hunting and 
boating country. 

Tie Those Actors Down . . . 

PHOENIX — If Hollywood studios 
won't tie actors to their saddles, Arizona 
may have to change its constitution to ex- 
clude from compensation Califomians on 
Arizona movie locations. A stunt rider, 
who fell from his horse on location, is said 
to have been drawing $235 a week ever 
since, under Arizona's 65 percent compL-n- 
sation law. California's maximum compen- 




Save-the- 
Redwoods 

Scud 10 cen la LMfti far these 
attractively illustrated pam- 
phlets; "A Living I ,ink in 
History." by John G. Mer- 
riam.^ "Trees, Shrubs and 
Flowers of the Kedwood 
Region." by Willis L. Jepson ... " h The Story 
Told by a Fallen Redwood/' by Emanuel 
Fritz... "Kedwo»ds of the Must," by Ralph 
Cbaney. A3 1 four pmiirihleLs free to new 
members — send J-2 lor annual membership 
Cor $IQ Iiit contributing snemhertihip). 

SAVE-THE- REDWOODS LEAGUE 
250 Admin ira lion Building, 
University nf CuLu'arma, Berkeley 4, CaM, 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



29 



sat ion is $30 a week. So far visiting actors 
have refused to sign waivers, and state of- 
ficials fear that some star may be injured 
and Arizona taxpayers will find them- 
selves paying him thousands per week in 
compensation. 

Face-lifting for Customs House . . . 

YUMA— The thick- walled adobe oc- 
cupied by U. S. customs since the days 
when Yuma was an international port, is 
being modernized with new stucco walls 
and concrete porch floors. Army quarter- 
master department is believed to have con- 
structed the building after completion of 
Fort Yuma in 18*10, The area across the 
river did not become part of the United 
States until the Gadsden Purchase in 1854. 
fn the early days, Yuma was receiving 



r 



Palm Vi limit afford > * parfact, 
healthful, Itctuded community to- 
ut*d Just VI miles beyond and 
through Palm Springi, at tht junc- 
tion of tha Faimi to Pint* Hfirii- 
lr. Komciitn from (75 S to 
ISSOO. Ternu It desired. Some 
lota with beautiful date and citnu ] 
1 tree*. BusLneei and income oppor- 
' tunltlts. No place off ere to much ] 
he truly restful deiert llvinK. 
for furffier Information and 
descripMva folc/er, confotf 

PftLH V1LLASE LAND COMPANY 

1104 Huntington Drlvt, San Marin* 

CU. S-1118-or 
P O lox DO. Palm Sprlnc.1 



point for supplies shipped up the river for 
mines and forts all over the West and 
clearing point for ores shipped as far as 
England. 

• • 

A stone column topped by the statue of 
a saddled but riderless horse has been 
placed at the wash near Florence where 
Tom Mix was killed in an automobile ac- 
cident seven years ago. The memorial was 
erected by Florence chamber of commerce. 

* a * 

President Truman has signed a bill au- 
thorizing a $2,000,000 appropriation for 
the immediate relief of the Navajo and 
Hopi Indians of Arizona, New Mexico 
and Utah. 

a • • 

William C. Courtis, 101 -year-old veter- 
an of Arizona Indian wars died in Phoenix 
December 12. He was a cavalryman at Fort 
Grant, Arizona, from 187 L to 1875, par- 
ticipating in battles with Apache Chief 
Cochise. 

a • a 

Harrison and Harry Austin, full- 
blooded Mojave Indians, residing on the 
Fort McDowell Indian reservation, have 
filed a test case in Maricopa county supe- 
rior court to compel the county recorder to 
enter their names on the county voting 
register. Arizona Congressman Richard F. 
Harless is acting as attorney for the two, 
who are testing the right of reservation In- 
dians to vote in Arizona. 

a a a 

Knitted articles made by young Papago 
girls in Mrs. A, W. Scholl's room at the 
A jo school were awarded the blue ribbon 
at the Arizona state fair. Most of the girls 
are about eight years old when they enter 
Mrs. Scholl's class, and are able to speak 
but a few words of English. 



into the heart of 

BY BOAT ~«t ££rs Norman Nevills 

- you country with — , 

A limited number of reservations are now being made for the 1948 Nevills 
expeditions down the San Juan and Colorado rivers — 191 miles in seven 
days. Special-built river boats, skilled boatmen, good food and sleeping 
bags for all passengers. 

Boats start from Mexican Hat, Utah, on the San Juan, and complete the 
trip art Lee's Ferry on the Colorado. Arrangements will be made to have 
your car driven from Mexican Hat to Lee's Ferry. Sidetrips include: 

Crossing of the Fathers, Music Temple, Mystery, Twilight and Hidden 
Passage Canyons, Outlaw Cave and the famous Rainbow Bridge 



For schedules and rates write to . . . 

■ 

NORMAN NEVILLS BLUFF, UTAH 

". . . A river trip with Not man Nevills h mare than a mere boat ride. It it * flight on a 
magic carpet of adventure into a canyon itdlder*'^ of indescribakle beauty and grandeur." 

—Desert Magazine 



CALIFORNIA 
Research for Searies Lake . . . 

TRONA — A new research laboratory 
costing $300,000 and covering 16,800 
square feet has been completed at the 
Trona plant of American Potash and 
Chemical corporation. The building con- 
tains nine laboratories, a spectographk 
lab, instrument room, photographic devel- 
oping room, research library, conference 
room and offices. An outstanding feature 
is a two-story pilot plant sertion equipped 
with galleries and overhead crane where 
small-scale models of equipment used in 
the plant will be set up and operated for 
prartical tests of new products and meth- 
ods. 

Owens Water Fight Continues . . . 

INDEPENDENCE — Representative 
Claire Engle has a bill pending in congress 
which would throw open to public entry 
500,000 acres of public domain in Inyo 
and Mono counties. The city of Los Ange- 
les is pressing a counter-measure to make 
opening of such lands subject to certain 
easements and water rights in favor of the 
city. Los Angeles claims that the Engle bill 
would cost the city $30,000,000, which it 
would have to pay for rights to individual 
owners who acquired the land. 

Salton Sea Too Fast? . . . 

DESERT BEACH — Swedish boating 
enthusiasts have asked the International 
Motor Yachting union to ban all world 
records made on bodies of water below sea 
level. The move apparently was aimed at 
California's Salton Sea, more than 200 feet 
below sea level. A total of 1 4 world records 
were set at Desert Beach's Salton Sea 
course during a recent regatta. The Ameri- 
can Power Boat association has gone on 
record against the resolution, and the 
Yachtsmen's Association of America has 
agreed to vote negatively if the subject is 
brought up. 

Mountain Peak Climbed Again . . , 

PARKER DAM — Needle-like Monu- 
ment peak, on the California side of the 
Colorado river across from Parker, Ari- 
zona, was scaled for the second recorded 
time on November 28. A train of climbers, 
five on a rope, consisting of Chuck and El- 
len Wilts, Jerry Ganapoie, Ray Van Aiken 
and Harry Sutherland, made the climb. 
Wet weather made progress over the ver- 
tical, dangerous rock slow and tedious so 
that the summit was not reached until late- 
afternoon. Final descent down the last 
pitch was made in total darkness. The peak 
was first climbed in December 1939. 

Horses for Stove Pipe Wells . . . 

DEATH VALLEY— Horseback riding 
will be added to the attractions at Stove 
Pipe Wells hotel in Death Valley this win- 
ter. Herbert London and his wife who op- 
r-i-ute Rock Creek Pack station north of 
Bishop in the summer, plan to bring & 
string of good riding stock to the hotel in 



30 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



January, Rides will be made to the sand 
dunes and Mosaic canyon, with extended 
trail outings scheduled in the adjacent 
mountain and desert country. 

Sue Palm Springs Indians . . . 

PALM SPRINGS — Mr. and Mcs. Lee 
Arenas, Agua Caiiente Indians who appar- 
ently won the right to individual owner- 
ship of their tribal allotment of valuable 
Palm Springs lands are being sued by their 
attorneys. The lawyers, Oliver O. Clark, 
David Sallee and John W, Preston are said 
to be suing for $353,000, declaring the 
land to be worth $1,000,000 and claiming 
one third of that amount for legal fees. 
They demand that the [and be sold to sat- 
isfy the claims. However Arenas has not 
yet acquired the land, the case being car- 
ried by the government to a higher court. 

Palm Springs-Salton Highway? . , . 

COACHELLA— Preliminary draft of a 
master plan for development of the entire 
Coachella valley has been presented to the 
Coachella Valley Planning committee by 
Charles Elliot, special consultant to River- 
side County Planning commission. High- 
light of the report was the proposal that a 
scenic highway be built along Whitewater 
wash from Palm Springs to the point 
where the wash enters the Saltan Sea. Pic- 
nic and recreational areas would be devel- 
oped along the route. The report also took 



up Indian lands, highway routings and 
proposed county, state and national parks. 

mm* 

Visitors to Joshua Tree national monu- 
ment in mid-November were greeted by a 
snow storm among the joshuas; 

• * * 

The grove of lofty palms at the Garnet 
station of the Southern Pacific in San Gor- 
gon io pass has been cut down to give bet- 
ter visibility to the semaphore system, Con- 
ky Conkwright, who passes the station ev- 
ery day, reports. 

• • • 
NEVADA 

Belmont Population Drops . . . 

BELMONT— Population of Belmont, 
once seat of Nye county, was halved when 
Charles W. Wagner, 86, was caught away 
from the camp by heavy snows. Unable to 
reach the camp, which lies 13 miles north- 
east of Manhattan, Wagner headed south 
to Beatty for the winter. Henry Matthews, 
71, is reported to be the only resident re- 
maining in Belmont. Wagner was born in 
a covered wagon at the site of Belmont in 
1861 and spent much of his life there. He 
made $150,000 in the Goldfield boom as 
partner of George Wingfield, but spent it 
all attempting to revive Belmont. 

Wild Bears Can Relax . . . 

CARSON CITY— Wild bears of Ne- 
vada won in an interpretation of law hand- 



ed down by the attorney-general in De- 
cember. Under state law, bears are classi- 
fied as game animals, but no open season 
was set by the legislature. The attorney- 
general declares that lack of an open sea- 
son results in a closed season and therefore 
bears will not be hunted this year. The 
state fish and game commission points out 
that all non-game birds, except those clas- 
sified in the game code as predatory spe- 
cies, also are protected throughout the year. 



"OVERLOOKED FORTUNES!" 
In the Rarer Mineral* 

There in other mineral wealth in "them 
thar hi lb" bet idea fold and pretty rocket 
There are "overlooked fortune*" in the many 
newer and rarer mine rale, inch a* Cotam- 
Icdum, Tantalum. Vanadium. Molybdenum, 
Uranium, Nickel, Cobalt, Bismuth, Dtdymi- 
ura, Selenium, Rhodium, Osmium. Ruthen- 
ium, Platinum, etc.. to mention juat a few 
of the 35 or more rarer element* and their 
300 or more commercial ores which the are** 
age proipcctori and mineral collector* are 
walk ins over in the hill* today and mine 
owner*, lar*-* and email . are throwing npon 
their waste-dump* unidentified 1 Many mora 
valuable than a told mine : CassiteHte feQO 
a ton; Columbite or Samarsklte f 1.000 a ton; 
Bismuth ore* J 2.000 a ton; Tantalita or 
Microlite up to 16,000 a ton, etc. Now ran 
can learn how to find, identify, and start 
caabinr in upon them! Send for FREE copy 
"Overlooked Fortune*" — it may lead to 
knowledge which may mak* you rich! 

DUKE'S 
RESEARCH LABORATORY 

Bex «•, Dept. B 
HOT SPRINGS, NEW MEXICO 



r 



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the summer with this new quality cooler, designed 
and built by the makers of famous Payne gas furnaces. 

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classrooms, factories. 

Available through Payne dealers. If you don't know- 
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PAYNE FURNACE COM 1' ANY (One of the DRESSEK 
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FEBRUARY, 1948 



31 



THE DESERT TRADING POST 

Classified advertising in this section costs 7 cents a word, $1.00 minimum per issue 



INDIAN GOODS 

ALWAYS THE BEST in Indian things. Old 
and new Navajo nigs a specially. Fine jew- 
elry and baskets. Our thirty [ons of rocks and 
minerals include many hard (o get items. Al- 
ways welcome. Daniels Indian Trading Post, 
401 W. Foothill Blvd., Foniana, Calif. 

[ WILL BUY — Collections. Indian Baskets. 
Old Navajo Rugs. Choice Minerals. Roy H. 
McKay (The Indian Store), Wickenburg, 
Ariz. 

4 VERY FINE ancient Indian Arrowheads 
Jl.OO. 4 liny perfect bird arrowheads SI. 00. 
I Ancient Stone Tomahawk $1.00, 2 Flint 
Skinning Knives SI -00. 1 Large Flint Hoe 
SI. 00. 2 Spearheads $1.00. 10 Arrowheads 
from 10 states $1.00. 20 Damaged Arrow- 
heads $1.00. 10 Fish Scalers SI. 00. 10 Hide 
Scrapers $1.00. 4 Perfect Saw Edged arrow- 
heads $1.00. The above 11 offers SI 0.00 
Postpaid. List free. Lear's, Kirby, Arkansas, 

FOR YOUR DEN, or Indian or Western room, 
or fireplace — a decorative Indian tomahawk 
with stone head and wooden handle wrapped 
with rawhide and buckskin, finished in gold 
and silver lacquer, A substantial, handmade 
gift for the home. $3.00, postpaid. Write Bob 
Baker. 1825 B Sc., Sparks, Nevada. 

INDIAN BEADED BELTS, all hand made, 
laced edges, Indian designs. Now hooking or- 
ders for Spring delivery. Returnable sample- 
sent to regularly listed dealers. %" and 1" 
widths. Prices on request. These are NOT 
prison-made belts. Will-Kraft, 44 16 Georgia 
5t„ San Diego 3, California, 

INDIAN RELICS — 15 years collection of pre- 
historic pottery and other artifacts. Approxi- 
mately 1000 pieces. Authentic, all from 
Northern Arizona. Detailed information upon 
ivoiiest. Address Box EB, Desert Magazine. 

CLIFF DWELLINGS, Indian Ruins, Petro- 
glyphs photographs 3 , /ix5. SI. 50 or 5x7. 
$2.50 per set of 12, postpaid, all identified. 
Alvin Kamp, Jackson, Missouri. 

1 RHD AND JESSIE PORT PR welcome you to 
the "Pow-Wow" Ttadmg Post, Yermo, 14 
mi. east of Barstow Hi way 91. Gifts* Indian 
Jewelry, souvenirs, rugs, lamps, etc., cutting 
material, cabochons, slabs, cabinet specimens. 
See your own cut! Free maps for rorkhound.s. 

INDIAN STYLE MOCCASINS. Htnd made of 
finest Elk and other leathers. Brown, white 
tan. Wool insole, Wholesale and retail. Prices 
on request. Order now for Spring delivery. 
Will-Kraft, 4416 Georgia St., S.m Diego 3, 
California. 

BOOKS — MAGAZINES 

GOLD PANNING for profit. Healthy, outdoot 
occupation. Beginners' big instruction book, 
blueprints, photograph — $1.00. Desert Jim. 
627 Lillian, Stockton. Calif. 

WANTED TO BUY: Early Western manu- 
scripts, letters, diaries, log books, maps, 
charts, prints, stamps, newspapers, maga- 
zines, books. John Eldean, 8S East Ashland 
Ave,, Phoenix. Ariz, 



SCENIC GUIDES — "The Key to Western 
Travel." Maps, descriptions and pictures, all 
alphabetically arranged for quick reference. 
Gtiides to Nevada, Northern California, 
Southern California, Arizona and Utah are 
available now. Price $1.00 each at your Book 
Store or by Mail from— Scenic Guides, Box 
288, Susanville, California. Write for infor- 
mation. 

DESERT, January th tough December for years 

1939 through 1947—9 vcars S3 5. 00. Also 

1940 through 1945—6 'years S 24.00, The 
Numismatist, 1945 through 1947. Edna Ma- 
lort, 5023 Meridian St., Los Angeles 42, Calif. 

SEND 3c STAMP for list of over 200 books; 
etc., on the West. Wilbur Smith, Cornland, 
Illinois. 

REAL ESTATE 

FOR LEASE—! to 5 acre placer plots with ex- 
cellent building locations and water, for those 
interesred in a permanent, romantic mining 
tetteac. Bill Schmidt, 602 E. Whittier Blvd., 
Wintrier, California. 

liNJOY DESERT LIVING furnished house- 
keeping Cottages, elevation 3300 feet, spring 
water, gas, oil furnace, year round climate. 
S50 month. Miller. Box Y, Lucerne Valley, 
Calif, 

LCCERNF VALLEY. Four season desert home- 
sites, electricity, water-mains in, oiled roads, 
superb views, mile ro post-office, stores. Big 
Ranchito parcels, from $650, low terms. 
Building discount. See or write Battellc, 
Box 105D, Lucerne Valley, California, 

FOR SALE — Home in the desert sunshine with 
livable income. For information write Desert 
Craft Shop, Box 733, Mesa, Arizona or call 
lVi mites west Apache Junction. 

YOU FOLKS who want to live in a peaceful 
valley! Well hete it is; new, cute, comfy in- 
sulated furnished home surrounded by moun- 
tains. Scenic sunsets. Get your health back 
on this 20 acre gold plater claim, 15 miles 
from great Lake Mead and good fishing. Its 
desert beauty will give you a different out- 
look on life. Yours for only $2SO0, Si Hub- 
hard. Kingman, Arizona. 

FELLOW ROCKHOUNDS, and desert lovers. 
Believe it or not 1 will sell all or part of my 
12 fertile acres near John Hilton's Desert 
Gem and Art Shop in California's Coachella 
Valley, the land of golden sunshine and dates. 
Water and electricity, hearing citrus, decidu- 
ous fruits, etc. Good Hi ways. Cash or terms. 
Roy Sandsberry. Route 1. Box [06, Thermal, 
Calif. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

CAN YOL' help me? Due to health conditions 
I not contagious disease) must spend one to 
three years on desert. Will consider any light 
work, full or part time in exchange for room 
and board and token salary. Young man, 27, 
single. Address Richard R. Compton, General 
Delivery, Maplewood, Missouri. 

METAL LOCATORS FOR SALE: Surplus 
Army mioe detectors. Locates metallic ures, 
buried treasure, etc. Mayhall Appliances, 
Belmont, Miss. 



FOR SALE: Karakul bed blankets, colors, blue, 
green, natural, maroon, weigh at least 41/2 
pounds. Monev back guarantee. Price $17.50. 
Write Addis Kelley, 4637 E. 52nd Place, 
May wood, California. 

KARAKULS. Producers of Persian Lamb fur 
are easy to raise and adapted to the desert 
which is their native home. For further in- 
formation write Addis Kelley, 4637 E. 52 
place, Maywood, California. 

CACTI AND SUCCULENTS— From die des- 
erts of the world. Don-Rita brand. By ap- 
pointment only. Write us your needs and we 
will try to help you. Michael Donnelly Cacti 
Gardens, 334 Lowell St.. Daly City, Calif. 

LEARN the profitable jewelry and gold-smith- 
ing trade at home. Simplified course teaches 
jewelry designing, manufacture and repair- 
ing; gemsetting, etc. Gemcrafters, Dept. F., 
Kalispell. Mont. 

VACATIONS ARE FUN at the Banner Queen 
ranch. Located on the rim of the desert — 
quiet, friendly, excellent food — swimming — 
saddle horses — trails-- for hikers — once the 
happy hunting ground of the prehistoric 
Cahuilla Indians. American plan — S9.50 
double, $10.00 single. Mail address: Bannet 
Queen Ranch, Julian, California. Phone for 
reservation, Julian 3-F-2. Bill and Adeline 
Mushet. owners and managers. 

MOTORS — G.E. 1/3 H.P. 1725 R.P.M— AC 
115 V. 60 Cycle Sgle Phase— Mounted Rub- 
ber Ring on Base Cradles, Price S28.50 f.n.h 
Others % H.P. up to 15 HP. Ted Schoeiv 
117 Orchard St.. Mt. Vernon. N. Y. 

WANTED: OLD ENVELOPES with western 
cancellations before 1890, Also gold coiu^ in 
good condition. Write: C. H. Greiner. 106 
N. Sunset. Temple City, Calif. 

MANAGER of Country Club near Los Angeles 
would like position as manager of a resort 
type hotel. Single, traveled, good host, and 
very well known. Confidential, Apply Bon 
H. Desert Magazine. 

PANNING GOLD A side line hobby for 
Rock bounds and Desc-rt Nomads. You 
should know how to pan gold, recognize gold 
hearing gravel and valuable quartz ledges. 
The places you go are where rich virgin 
ground is found. Send your name for new 
folder on panning gold, with pictures — list 
of mining books and equipment for prospec- 
tor beginners. Old Prospector. Box 2 1 But j. 
Dutch Flat, Calif. 

FREE — Geologic and Scenic Color Slide Cata- 
log, Heald-Rohinson, 2202 N, Santa Anita 
Avenue, Altadena, California, Enclose S ! .00 
for Special Offer— No, 439 Owachomo Na- 
tural Bridge; No. 11R5 Devil's Tower. Wy- 
oming; No. 1234 Yellowstone Fa 1 1 s 



"EVERYTHING FOR THE HIKER" 

SLEEPING BAGS 
AIR MATTRESSES 
SMALL TENTS 

and many other items 

VAN DEGRIFT'S HIKE HUT 

717 West 7th Street 
LOS ANGELES 14, CALIFORNIA 



32 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



The Long Journey Home . . . 

BEATTY — It took the Montgomery 
hotel building 35 years to get home, but it 
is back in Beatty today. The hotel was a 
leading institution of southern Nevada 40 
years ago but with the passing of the 
Bullfrog-Rhyolite boom it was moved to 
the camp of Pioneer a few miles north of 
Beatty. When Pioneer died, a portion of 
the building was hauled to Tonopah, 
served various purposes and finally became 
a second-hand store. In November Dave 
Roberts dragged what was left of the old 
Montgomery hotel back to Beatty where it 
will be used for business purposes. 

Under-Water Survey for Late Mead 

BOULDER CITY— An extensive un- 
der-water survey of Lake Mead is being 
planned for the near future to determine 
volume and density of sediment carried 
into the lake and deposited by the Colo- 
rado river. The work will be carried out 
jointly by the navy department, the coast 
and geodetic survey and the U. S. geologi- 
cal survey, with the geological survey re- 
sponsible for operations and the boats and 
under-water sound equipment furnished 
by the Navy. Primary purpose of the 8 to 
12 months' investigation will be to deter- 
mine loss in Lake Mead storage capacity 
due to sediment. 

Eureka Buys Itself . . . 

EUREKA — The old camp of Eureka, 
which has been squatting on public land 
since its founding in 1863, bought itself 
from the interior department December 6. 
Eureka is booming again with increased 
world demand for lead and zinc. With a 
population reaching 700, officials are seek- 
ing incorporation as a city and wished to 
clear the title to land on which more than 
$ 1,000 ,000 in improvements have been 
placed. Arrangements were made with the 
interior department and patent to the prop- 
erty was granted for $600. 

• • ■ 

Esmeralda County Clerk Amy Roberson 
sold an entire block of 20 lots, and 24 lots 
in other blocks in south Goldficld during 
one day in November. A vast amount of 
land in Goldfield has been bought from 
the county since Newmont Deep Mines 
operations made its big strike there. 



Richard Haman, manager of the Fair- 
field ranch on the Nevada-California bor- 
der has filed a claim in the state engineer's 
office for all the moisture tn clouds passing 
over the 12,000 acre ranch. Haman plans 
to manufacture rain through the dry ice- 
method, and feels he should have title to 
all the rain he makes. 

• ■ i 

NEW MEXICO 
Indians Reconvert Jewelry . . . 

GALLUP - Reports that counterfeit 
half dollars were being circulated in Gal- 
lup died when it was found that the coins 
were reconverted Indian buttons. Two In- 
dians were taken into custody after they 
had passed several bright but mutilated 
half dollars, but were released when the 
coins were identified as formerly part of 
their jewelry. When Indians are in need 
of cash, it is reported that they snap off the 
loops they have soldered on coins for use 
as jewelry and return them to circulation. 
In this case the loops had been removed by 
a silversmith's soldering torch and the 
coins burnished. 

He Likes the Reservation . . . 

RUIDOSO— Percy Bigmouth was born 
on the Mescalero Apache Indian reserva- 
tion 58 years ago, and never has left it. He 
has been a ranger on the reservation dur- 
ing the past 12 years, patrolling areas open 
to tourists, looking after fish and wildlife 
and issuing fishing licenses. When the 
hunting season closes at Christmas, Percy 
will go back into the reservation to spend 
the winter with his 97-year-old father. In 
the spring he will be back at the ranger 
station. But he will not leave the reserva- 
tion. "Why should I go anywhere else," he 
says. "My home is here." 




HI-Yah Padner! 

A Bit of the Old West. 
This 6" ceramic cov- 
ered w a g tp ii, hand 
painted, too! Just the 
thini? for that Window 
shelf to add that 
Western touch. The 
unusual succulent 
gives a warm desert 
welcrme. S tap yo' 
brand on this com- 
bination. $1.40 P.P. 
Send 10c for Desert 
Jewel Plant and Cacti 
list to — 

aRm Ranch 

Rt. 1, Holtville, Calif. 



State Wants More Land . . . 

SANTA FE — State Land Commissioner 
John E. Miles declares that the New Mex- 
ico congressional delegation will work for 
a bill to turn federal public lands over to 
state control. The state now controls 10,- 
000,000 acres of public land and Miles es- 
timates that the bill would turn another 
10-15 million acres over to New Mexico. 
Chief federal revenue from the land comes 
from grazing fees, and Miles said the state 
would inaugurate a program for grazing 
and mineral development. 



COUNTY MAPS 

CALIFORNIA— 

Showing Twnshp, Eng., Sec Mines, 
Road, Trail, Creek, River, Lake, R.R., 
School, Camp, Rngr. Sta., Elevation, 
Ntl. Forest, Land Grant, Pwr, Lines, 
Canals, Boundaries, etc. 

Size Range: 
20x30 to 73x100 Inches 

ALL COUNTIES $1 EXCEPT AS LISTED 

Tuolumne, Santa Barbara, Plumas, 
Placer, Modoc, Madera, $1.50: Tulare, 
Tehama, Siskiyou, Imperial, $2: San Di- 
ego, Riverside, Mendocino, Kern, Hum- 
boldt, Fresno, $2.50; Trinity, Shasta, 
Mono, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Las- 
sen, S3.00; Inyo County, 67x92, $15.00; 
Scrn Bernardino,. 73x110, $15.00; San 
Bernardino, No. or So. Half, $7.50; the 
N.W., S.W., N.E., or S.E. quarter of San 
Bernardino, $3.75 ea. 

ALSO — Oregon, Idaho and 
Washington County Maps 

World's Minerals 

2417 San Pablo Avenue 
OAKLAND 12, CALIFORNIA 
Phone: TE 2-3870 




PUMICE BLOCKS 
CINDER BLOCKS 
DIACRETE BLOCKS 

{ROSE COLORED) 



DESERT DESIGNED . . . 

ior maximum insulation and light weight. Precision built accurately 
square. In natural colors for any background or architectural design. 
For commercial and residential construction, garden walls, fireplaces, 
barbecues— adaptable for Class "A" construction. 

Immediate delivery anywhere on the desert. For descriptive literature write— 

TRANSIT MIXED CONCRETE 

3464 E. FOOTHILL BLVD.. PASADENA, CALIF, -or— BOX 186. CORONA, CALIF. 
Phone Sycamore 38133 Phone Corona 781 or 31 1 

EL CENTRO ADDRESS: 1000 North 4th Street — Phone El Centra 71 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



33 



Navajo Health Surveyed . . . 

GALLUP — Navajo Indians are suffer- 
ing from a high rate of preventable disease 
and their present medical care is inade- 
quate, six Dallas physicians who studied 
conditions on the reservation have report- 
ed in the Journal of the American Medical 
association. They advocated adequate 
medical field service, enlargement of hos- 
pitals at Ft. Defiance and Crownpoint, im- 
provement of medical personnel, improve- 
ment of nutrition, and cooperation of the 
Indian service with health departments of 
New Mexico and Arizona. 

Wild Sheep Seek Quiet Range . , . 

TULAROSA — Mountain sheep report- 
edly are appearing for the first time in the 



White mountains, and local residents are 
speculating that their arrival may have re- 
sulted from the atomic bomb and rocket 
experiments in the White Sands area. 
Sheep were known to have roamed the San 
Andres range, near White Sands, for many 
years and Tularosa citizens believe that 
they may be moving into the White moun- 
tains in search of quieter territory. 

Wrong Boxes lor Navajo . . . 

ARTESIA— Grade school children held 
a drive for Navajo relief and collected five 
boxes of canned food which were placed in 
the school hall. In the same hall were boxes 
containing $400 worth of textbooks, and 
the wrong boxes were shipped. At last re- 
port, school officials were eager to turn the 



food over to the Indians — but they want 
their textbooks back. Navajo Assistance, 
Inc., has tried to locate the missing books 
both in Gallup and Fort Defiance but they 
apparently are buried under supplies still 
un sorted. 

* * • 

George Curry, 85, state historian and 
last territorial governor of New Mexico, 
died in Albuquerque in November. 

• • ■ 

Haskie Burn side, veteran of World 
War II, reported that the people near Pine 
Springs Indian day school are ready to vol- 
unteer their labor to build a dormitory for 
the school children. They have decided to 
ask Navajo service school officials for di- 
rection or help in the project. 




"" 



Exterior view looking southwest, of Imperial Irrigation 
District's steam-electric generating station now under 
construction in El Centra. Pictured from left to right 
are the outdoor substation, main entrance and build- 
ing, auxiliary bay, outdoor boiler and steel smoke- 

" If* mc ™ k?i ilding wil1 be three stories high 

' space. It has 



been designed to provide sufficient space for future 
expansion of generating facilities from an original 
installation of 25,000 KVA capacity to an ultimate 
capacity of 50,000 KVA. The station will furnish stand- 
by power for the hydro-electric sources of the District 
including units at Drops 3 and 4 on the All-American 
Uanal. 



Imperial Irrigation District, 



Use Yaur Own Power-Unfa it Pay for th f , AH American Canal 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 




UTAH 

Snow Blocks Color Movie . . . 

KANAB — Heavy December snowfall 
throughout Kane and Garfield counties 
forced the newly organized Kanab Pic- 
tures corporation to consider seeking Ari- 
zona Locations to complete filming of its 
color picture, "Wild Horse Range." 
The company was organized by a group of 
Kanab livestock men to film authentic 
western pictures, and its first production 
was within six days of completion when 
the snow fell. Livestock scenes taken in the 
colorful Escalante area have been complet- 
ed, including wild horse roping before the 
camera. 

State Park for Camp Floyd . . . 

SALT LAKE CITY— Utah Historical 
society has accepted an offer from the 
U. S. army to take over the abandoned site 
of old Camp Floyd and the graveyard 
there, and to set them aside as a state park. 
Camp Floyd, located one-half mile south- 
west of Fairfield, Utah county, was estab- 
lished in 1858 by General Albert Sydney 
Johnston. Johnston was ordered by Presi- 
dent Buchanan to march against the Mor- 
mon pioneers after rumors spread in the 
east that coast bound emigrants were 
threatened. The 40- acre tract was the first 
military post in Utah. 

Navajo Work in Utah . . . 

RICHFIELD— More than 900 Navajo 
were used in the beet fields and on the 
farms of Utah during the past summer and 
fall. Whole families, men, women and 
children, worked together and employ- 
ers reported them hard and careful work- 
ers who did the jobs the way the farmers 
wanted them done. Douglas E. Scalley, 
general manager of the Utah-Idaho Sugar 
company which brought in most of the 
Navajo by truck, said there had been few 
complaints regarding their work and the 
company was pleased by results achieved. 

Highway Completion Promised . . . 

PRICE — Surfacing of Highway 6, de- 
clared to be the shortest and most scenic 
route from the north Atlantic states to 
Southern California, definitely will be 
completed by the end of 1 948 according to 
assurances given at a meeting of interested 
parties in Price recently. Eighty individ- 



uals from five western states, including en- 
gineers, highway officials, county commis- 
sioners and road commissioners attended. 




First Edition - 40 Woodcuts 



DESERT RAT 
SCRAP BOOK 

A Quarterly of 
DESERT TALL TALES 
HUMOR - PHILOSOPHY 

WIT AND BANTER 
10c a Copy - 50c a Year 

HARRY OLIVER, Editor 
Thousand Palms, i 



DEATH VALLEYI . . . 

Enjoy this fabulous wonderland with its 
ideal winter climate, at . . . 

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FEBRUARY, 1948 



U. S. Big Utah Landowner . . . 

SALT LAKE CITY — Congressional 
Representative William A. Dawson, study- 
ing the effect on Utah of proposed legisla- 
tion which would require a federal pay- 
ment to the state in lieu of taxes for fed- 
erally owned property, discovered that 73 
per cent of the total area of Utah is admin- 



istered by the national government. Of the 
38,386,018 acres thus controlled, 24,970,- 
216 are under the grazing service, 7,838,- 
035 under the forest service, 2,524,754 in 
Indian reservations and grazing lands, 
1,911,365 in army reservations and 285,- 
481 in national parks and monuments, ac- 
cording to Rep. Dawson's figures. 

• • • 

A 350-page illustrated history of Uintah 
county has been compiled and published 
by the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers, 
with Mrs. Leonard Horrocks, Vernal, 
chairman of the committee, 

• ■ • 

The Salt Lake county commission has 
decided to use all the federal aid secondary 
highway money available during 1948 to 



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further completion of the Mormon Trail 
memorial highway through Emigration 
canyon in the Wasatch mountains. Gover- 
nor Maw pointed out that the road, which 
marks the trail followed by the first Mor- 
mons to reach Utah, will bring thousands 
of tourists into the county. 

* * • 

John Lovern Oliver, 85, who served as 
a guard against Indian attacks against Utah 
settlements in the '80s, died in Moab in 
November. In 1 882 he was called with his 
parents to help colonize Showlow, Ari- 
zona. He moved to Moab in 1887, and 
brought the first threshing machine to 
Moab valley. 

* • # 

The state department of publicity and 
industrial development plans to install 
signs along major highways near Flagstaff, 
Arizona; Barstow, California; McCam- 
mon, Idaho; Cheyenne, Wyoming, and 
Denver, Colorado. The signs will show a 
view of Temple square and are planned 
to attract tourists to Utah. 

* a ■ 

Lehi W. Jones, who delivered mail by 
pony express between Cedar City and 
southern Nevada mining towns when he 
was 16, died in Cedar City in November. 
He was a partner in the Pipe Springs Cat- 
tle company at the turn of the century, and 
became a bank president during the de- 
pression, when he was 78 years old. 



Keep your copies of 
DESERT MAGAZINE in 
Loose Leaf Binders! 

These gold-embossed binders 
are made especially for Desert 
readers. Magazines are quickly 
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easy reference. 

Each binder has space for a 
year's copies. Mailed to you 
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(below) Grant Grove — almost two 
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play room — ■ 20x24 living quarters - 
line well water — almost new pressure 
pump — electric light and power — 
butane gas cooking and heating — 
1800 leet elevation, below ordinary snow 
line — bolh summer park-tourist and 
winter snow-sports travel — daily mail 

- daily school bus service two and one- 
half miles to Dunlap School, 50-6D stu- 
dents, eight elementary grades and 9th 
and 10th grades which equal first two 
High School years — Museum contains 
fine collection 100 American shoulder 
arms, 75 fine hand weapons — 2400 cut 
and polished gem stones ■ — lots cutting 
rock — 250 rare valuable Indian baskets, 
tribes from Alaska to Old Mexico — 65 
stone mortars and other Indian artifacts 

— sun-colored glass, old jewelry and 
coin collections, miniatures - old china 
and other antiques — 500 dollars sale 
and trade novelties — branding irons 

— hundreds pioneer relics — numerous 
items not mentioned — fifteen cabinets 
and showcases. A choice collection all 
through and not a cheap deal, but your 
chance of a lifetime — better investigate 
at once. It will not last: 

Write 2104 B Street, or Phone 28124 
Bakersfield, California 



36 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



LITTERS 



t t f 



A Haven lor the Navajo . . . 

BIythe, California 

Dear Randall: 

Let's do something for the hungry Na- 
vajo — something constructive, feasible, 
worth-while. 

A few years ago, a committee of Navajo 
went to the Colorado River reservation for 
the purpose of ascertaining whether it 
might be practical and desirable for Nava- 
jos to do some farming there. Well, the 
Navajos love to raise sheep and horses, not 
cotton and asparagus. They love those 
painted buttes of Navajoland. And when 
that committee returned home, they were 
told (so I am informed) that if again they 
went on a like wild goose chase, not to re- 
turn. 

But things have changed since then. A 
lot of those Navajo boys have been over- 
seas. They have seen the world, have re- 
ceived some education, and — well, they 
are hungry, and the future looks dark. 

All right, let's feed them, or rather, 
give them a start so that they can feed 
themselves. My plan; Put 10,000 acres of 
Colorado River Indian reservation into al- 
falfa. Beginning in May, cut hay monthly 
for six months. Stack in fields — no baling. 
In November, disc in barley. -February 1, 
bring in 50,000 ewes. Lamb until May 1. 
Then arrange for finishing and marketing 
of 25,000 male lambs and a lot of old 
ewes — the number to be determined by 
range conditions and in conformity with a 
practical long-range program. 

Listen! I'm not versed in sheep raising. 
The foregoing is simply something to 
shoot at. Judging from what has been told 
me by sheepmen, the above should be a 
conservative estimate of possibilities. 

The reclaiming of 1000 acres annually 
might be the wisest plan. I believe that 
such a plan would encourage the Indians, 
after noting first year's results, to get en- 
thusiastically behind the proposition. 

ED. F. WILLIAMS 

See cowmen! on page 46, this isstte. 
» • • 

Memories of a Soldier . . . 

Detroit, Michigan 

Dear Sir: 

Early back in 1943 Uncle Sam sent me 
and thousands of others to the Desert 
Training Center, U. S, Army' — located 
anywhere in the Mojave between Needles 
and Indio. 

How I cursed my luck for being sent to 
that desolate, burning, side-winder and 
lizard infested wilderness! How I hated it 
— at first! But as I became somewhat re- 
signed to it, I began to look around and 
found that the hated desert had certain 



fascination to it. With a few pals, I started 
little exploring trips into the mountains 
and the canyons. We started to notice dif- 
ferent specimens of rocks, animal life and 
vegetation and before we knew it, we were 
having a lot of fun— although we never 
admitted to each other that we 
the place. 

I have been out of the army for two years 
now, but have never forgotten the Mojave 
desert. That's why, one day recently, when 
I picked up a book on Death Valley in our 
local library and noticed a reference to 
your Desert Magazine — I subscribed to it. 
It will keep my memory fresh until that 
day when I revisit your glorious wilder- 
ness. 

This might be one of the reasons why 
you receive new subscriptions from east of 
the Rocky mountains— thousands of boys 
trained out there during the late unpleas- 
antness—and have not forgotten it, 

STANLEY KOVICK 
* ■ • 

Mother Nature Spilled Her Ink . . , 

Los Angeles, California 
Dear Mr. Henderson: 

In your December issue you asked for 
further information regarding the blue 
water in the lower course of the Little 
Colorado river. Perhaps the following will 
interest you: 

About 1918 F. G. Baum, consulting en- 
gineer of San Francisco, who was interest- 
ed in power development on the Little 
Colorado, asked me as the representative 
of the State of Arizona in such develop- 
ment, to join him on a trip to investigate 
rumors of a "Blue spring" in the canyon of 
the Little Colorado. 

Having quite a wide acquaintance 
among the Navajo I tried to get informa- 
tion, but to no avail. Finally I mentioned 
this to Mr. McCormick, an old-timer liv- 
ing in Flagstaff. He recalled that he had 
heard of a "wonderful health-giving 
spring" in the bottom of the Little Colo- 
rado canyon, and a trail leading to it from 
a point near Desert View on the south rim. 

At an opportune time Mr. Baum and I 
got together an outfit for desert travel, and 
loaded it in my Ford and started out. We 
found the trace of a road leading off the 
main highway east of Desert View where 
there is a small dirt reservoir on the left 
side of the road, facing Coconino Point. I 
believe the side road was to the left of the 
reservoir. 

This road was by no means easy to fol- 
low. We had to use our hoist to pull the 
car up some of the steep slopes, but most 
of the way the going was fair. Stones had 
been piled along the edge of the road, and 
their coloring gave us the impression they 



had at some early day been whitewashed 
for easier travel. 

The road ended at the brink of Little 
Colorado canyon. There we found a big 
cairn, eight or ten feet high, marking the 
beginning of a good trail. It led down to a 
place where a rope ladder had been in- 
stalled to ascend a vertical cliff. From the 
bottom of the ladder a fair trail led to the 
spring at the bottom. It was a large spring 
with stalactites at the upper edge of the 
overhang. Samples of the water were 
taken, but I never learned whether or not 
it was fit for man, woman, horse or mule. 

Looking down from the brink of the 
canyon, we had the impression that a gi- 
gantic bottle of blue ink had been spilled, 
as the color from that height was a deep 
blue. 

I am not surprised that you found blue 
water at the mouth of the Little Colorado 
when you made your voyage through the 
gorge. Obviously it came from this blue 
spring, which we called Baum spring in 
honor of our fine superior, who made the 
trip possible. 

GEORGE O. BAUWENS 

■ • ■ 

President Harding Rapids . . . 

Petaluma, California 

Dear Sir: 

Tonight in reading of your trip through 
Grand Canyon I saw mention of President 
Harding rapids. (December, page 8.) 
Now, just before supper, I was looking 
through an old National Geographic — the 
issue of May, 1924, with Freeman's story 
of the 1923 river survey. 

Emery Kolb was on that trip, and if he 
scratches his head a bit he may remember 
as Freeman says that they were at Soap 
creek rapids when the news of the presi- 
dent's death reached them over their little 
radio. The rapids with the big boulder in 
it was where they laid over a day in honor 
of the president's funeral on August 10. 

GEORGE R. WINN 

■ • • 

We're Sharpening the Harpoon . . . 

Pomona, California 

Dear Mr, Henderson : 

In regard to your editorial in January, 
1948, Desert Magazine about dumping on 
the desert in which you ask for suggestions 
as to where you shall start the editorial 
harpoon to work on the offenders. 

Would suggest you start on whoever is 
dumping and burning rubbish at the 
mouth of Deep Canyon about two miles 
south of the site of new Desert Magazine 
building in Palm Desert. (You can see 
the smoke signal up there.) 

This target will be sufficiently close so 
you will not need a very long lariat to pull 
out the harpoon after each shot. 

Wishing you Happy Harpooning and 
hoping you get a ten strike the first shot. 
I remain yours for cleaner deserts. 

L. H. HASKIN 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



37 



Homestead in New Mexico . . . 

Albuquerque, New Mexico 

Dear Sir: 

We feel that we owe the Desert Maga- 
zine a great deal more than the monthly 
two bits we put out, when we have finally 
located it. 

We had looked for a "jack rabbit home- 
stead" in California, shortly after the pass- 
age of the act, but did not find what we 
wanted. During the war, and the hectic 

our mind. 

Your editorial in the October Desert 
Magazine renewed our interest, and we 
started to investigate it again. We heard of 
a tract L5 miles east of Albuquerque, but 
found it had all been filed on. In the Pub- 
lic Land Office in Santa Fe, we found 
there was 225 acres open, less than three 
miles from the center of town, and adjoin- 
ing the west city limits. No one had filed 
on it, and no one seemed to have any in- 
terest in it. It had been surveyed into 40 
acres, or less, lots in 1917. 

Needless to say, we hastened out to see 
what was wrong with it. If there was any- 
thing, we didn't find it. Good water at less 
than 100 feet, less than a mile to a paved 
highway, school, power and telephone 
line. We filed the first claim on it, October 
27, 1947. 

Then as we leisurely thumbed through 
our latest Desert, on page 24 we found a 
sketch, by our favorite artist, of the vety 
place we hope to build on it, even to the 
Sangre de Cristo range in the background. 
If we realize our dream, and any one ever 
mistakes us for the Desert Magazine plant, 
we will gladly send them on over to Palm 
Desert. 

Wishing you the best of luck in your 
new home. 

J. HENRI BARLETT 

Thanks, Henri, and you in yours. I 
am glad to know the folks in New 
Mexico are making use of the 5 -acre 
homestead act. — R.H. 

* • * 

Big Mouthful of Snakes . . . 

Canyon Lake, Arizona 

Dear Sir: 

In one of your numbers you said that 
snakes do not swallow their young when 
there is danger near. I do not agree with 
you on that point. When I was about 15 
years old in Oklahoma I came upon a water 
moccasin. She opened her mouth and the 
little ones ran in and she closed it. I killed 
the snake and cut it open and she had 26 
little ones about three inches long inside. 

THOMAS HOOT EN 

Eden, Texas 

Desert Editor: 

About 1897 I was riding the range at 
ten in the morning. I heard the familiar 
buzz, and saw a rattlesnake outside a 



prairie-dog hole. About 10 young ones 
rushed to the mother and crawled in her 
mouth while she backed down the hole 
and disappeared. I had never heard of such 
a thing before, but I assure you it was just 
as I relate. The sun was shining, the rattles 
were working, and I had had nothing but 
coffee for breakfast. 

F. G. HOSKINS 
Yucaipa, California 

Dear Sirs; 

Does a rattlesnake swallow its young? I 
think your answer to that in the December 
issue is incorrect. 

On the plains of Kansas, in a prairie-dog 
town, I came upon an old rattler and seven 
young ones about six inches long. When 
she was aroused her tail started buzzing, 
and at the same time her mouth flew open 
and every one of the little fellows ran 
down her throat. I killed her and cut her 
open and the little ones were as lively as 
ever. Another man, G. L. Miller, told me 
he saw almost exactly the same thing hap- 
pen. 

R. BARNUM 
Stamford, Texas 

Gentlemen : 

I would like to say something about your 
answer to Question No. 14 about snakes 
swallowing their young to protect them. 
The answer stated that they did not do 
this. Now I don't know whether they swal- 
low them or not, but I have actually seen 
very tiny snakes run into the mouth of a 
large snake when they were seared. Tech- 
nically your answer may be correct, for the 
tiny ones may make themselves into a tiny 
ball and remain temporarily in the mouth 
(which they probably do), and they are 
probably not swallowed, but they actually 
do run into the mouth of the larger snake. 
Had I not seen this with my own eyes I 
would not make such a positive statement, 
but I have seen it. The snakes I refer to 
above were not rattlesnakes, but ordinary 
garden snakes such as are found in this 
part of Texas, 

PAUL L. SUMMERS 

For the information of readers 
Hoot en, Ho skins. Barn urn, Summers 
and the other 17 who took issue on 
this question, the Snake editor of Des- 
ert has gone A.W.O.L. He says 
there's too many of you fellows to ar- 
gue with. We're still not sure whether 
those youngsters find refuge in the 
gizzard or the gullet of the mother 
snake — but that is a mere technicality. 
You win!~R.H. 

• • • 

From a 1923 Canyon Voyager . . . 

Durango, Colorado 

Dear Mr. Henderson: 

I have just finished reading the second 
instalment of your "Grand Canyon Voy- 



age," which brings vivid memories to me, 
of the 1923 U.S.G.S. trip. 

I wish to call your attention to two mat- 
ters mentioned in your story. First Elm a 
Milotte is not the first woman to ride 
through Hance rapid, as Edith Kolb rode 
through on Leigh Lint's boat in 1923. She 
and Mrs. Gilliland had come down from 
the top with the pack train in order to 
watch us run the rapid. Emery consented 
for her to ride through. Leigh said he never 
came closer to capsizing than during that 
run. 

Second, as to the location of the Presi- 
dent Harding rapid: I am inclined to be- 
lieve that the map makers are right in their 
location of it. We heard of the president's 
death on August 2, while at Soap creek 
rapid but did not lay over in memory of 
President Harding until August 10. Your 
description of the rapid seems to identify 
it as there was a single, above- water boul- 
der in midstream. I never thought of the 
rapid as particularly dangerous but I was 
thrown completely out of my boat when 
I tipped it on its side in order to escape 
taking water from the angling side wave 
thrown out from the rock. 

ELWYN BLAKE 

• > • 

Healing Power of the Desert . . . 

Riverside, California 

Gentlemen: 

The article in the last December issue 
by Mr. South is about the best he has so 
far written on the desert. He is a mystic, 
therefore he treats the desert as a person 
when he mentions the desert loving you. 
This, of course, is purely symbolic as the 
desert can just as easily kill you too. I know 
what he means, however. I think what he 
thought is the fact that the tremendous 
force of an outgoing love acts as a sort of 
boomerang. It comes back to you as an in- 
spiration which produces hope and faith, 
and mental well-being. This, combined 
with desert air and climate, fresh water and 
perhaps sulphur baths, completes the cure 
if at all possible, I am deeply convinced 
that we can only receive what we give out 
ourselves, but this does not really conflict 
with his explanation. He is a fine man and 
has made a lot of people think. 

LOUIS L. HUILLIER 

• ■ ■ 

Keep the Desert Clean . . . 

Santa Cruz, California 

Dear Sir: 

I read your editorial about Los Angeles 
wanting to dump her garbage on the des- 
ert. I hope you'll keep after them until 
they back out. f believe the desert should 
belong to everyone, and not just one big 
town that thinks she is the "whole cheese" 
and wants to use it for a garbage can. 

I note with pleasure you keep the maga- 
zine clear of booze and tobacco ads. Please 
keep it that way. 

V. V. BUCKMAN 



V 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



MisiacU Jtouk 

By Constance Walker 
Los Angeles, California 

Wait for the glow of the twilight sun, 
Stilling your Hps and mortal sense. 
Wait till the day is nearly done. 
Resting as silence grows intense. 
When all is hushed and amber-lit, 
History lives in sand and sage. 
When you arc one with the Infinite, 
Wisdom flows from another age. 
Then you can hear the desert speak, 
Garner the words the Joshuas sing. 
Then you shall know the truth you seek: 
Knowledge that space is whispering. 



DESERT VISTA 

By Georgia Moore Eberling 
Pueblo, Colorado 

There's royal blue as the mountains lift 
Their spreading tents where the white clouds 
drift, 

The prairies have spread a blanket of brown 
That is soft and as warm as eider-down 
To cover the roots of the desett flowers 
And to tuck them in against pelting showers. 

Seated here at her mighty loom 
Nature is weaving a web of bloom: 
Grey-green sage sniped with yellow rows, 
Lines of crimson whetc fire- weed glows, 
Robust green of the tumbleweeds 
Rocking to sleep their bahy seeds. 

Grim red cliffs rim the desert's bound 
And hear forever the lonely sound 
Of the desert wind singing lullaby 
To the desert birds as they wait to fly. 

Nothing else but a flock of sheep 
And a Navajo shepherd, fast asleep. 

• * * 

DESERT LURE 

By Cora C. Williams 
Alamosa, Colorado 

'Tis only the desert winds that know- 
About a summer of long ago; 
1 wrote the story in white, hot sand, 
But 'tis only the winds that understand. 
My heart stood still and I caught my breath 
At the wild enchantment strange as death ; 
I thrust my fingers in the sand so hot, 
It burned my hands, but I felt it not. 

My soul was aflame in the desert vast. 
For here was heaven and peace at last; 
I stretched my arms to the endless space, 
I felt, I knew 1 could see God's face; 
I could feel His presence, and I could hear 
His voice in the winds like music clear. 
The winds, alone know the mystery 
Of the desert, and its lure for me. 

• ■ ■ 

BENEATH THE 
STARRY DESERT SKY 

By Lenore S. Lyon 
San Diego, California 

Beneath the starry desert sky 

We stood one night, my love and I. 

The moon rode high in a fleecy cloud 

And I thought the ocotillo bowed 

Its flower-tipped head in grateful prayer 

For the peace and beauty mirrored there. 



FIERCE CAPTIVE 

By Iva Poston 
Kalispcll, Montana 

A spiny cactus, 
Stiff and still, 
Trapped in a pot 
On the window sill. 




Photo by Grace Hartzdl, Los Angeles. 



ON THE DONNER TRAIL 

By Margaret Schaffer Connelly 
San Bernardino, California 

The broken bottles lie scattered about 

To mark where the Donners passed, 
Along the trail of the desert sand-, 

Only these, are the things that last- 
Shining pieces of china, blue 

As the color in a woman's eyes; 
A feather bed that was filled with down 

And trinkets, a girl might prize. 

Charcoal, left from an open fire; 

Rifles, grown rusty and old; 
Nothing is left of the pioneers 

But a pot of hidden gold 1 
Where is the prospector who can see 

The metal, where it lies; 
Can any seer with divining rod 

Mark the spot hid from hitman eyes? 

Many have sought it, then went their way 

And many are the tales that are said 
Of the pioneers' fatigue and thirst 

As they slept on their salty bed; 
But one shall come, in the passing years, 

And dig where a skeleton lies 
Guarding trie gold that he buried, late 

One night, under desert skies ! 

* * • 

CREED OF THE DESERT 

By June LeMert Paxton 
Yucca Valley, California 

A full moon floods the Valley 
With brilliant star in tow; 

Low shrubs look like dark patches 
While sandy stretches glow. 

* • ■ 

DESERT PAINTING 

By Stella Knight Ruess 
Los Angeles, California 

Where sands curve soft in silvery dunes, 
The bright verbenas closely cling. 
Across the pale blue mour'- 
A cloud drifts like an ang 

* * a 

DESERT WIND 

By Iva Poston 
Kalispell, Montana 

Desert wind's a fraidy cat 
It pounds and screams 
With all its might 
When you lock it out 
Of the house at night. 



THOUGHTS FROM THE DESERT 

By David N. Ware 
Huntington Park, California 

Greetings from this desert on a warm and wintry 
night. 

Greetings from this cussed, cursed, camping 
site. 

Where all the bugs and bees and bats seem to 
And the crickets and coyotes keep a guy awake. 

I say, greetings from this wretched, waterless, 
wasting land, 

Where one looks miles about him and sees sand, 
and only sand; 

Where only certain shrubs can live, and romp- 
ing, runted rats. 

Where lost and limping mongtels stray, and 
sickly, sulky cats. 

Yet, as 1 lay snug beneath a spatkling sky, 
While the warm wind whistles through the 

sage close by, 
The scent of winter blossoms seems to whisk 

my thoughts away 
From any toils or troubles that I've had 

throughout the day. 

i seem to find a feeling somewhere deep inside. 
Of reverence for this sand and space spread so 

far and wide — 
Reverence for such peace f illness to end the day, 
When one can rest his weary self and dream his 

life away. 

« * • 

SPANISH DAGGER 

By Elizabeth Cannon Porter 
Puentc, California 

Bold Spaniard saw in you 
A bayonet for his sword. 

But pious Indian called you 
Candle of the Lord. 



FLIGHT 

By Tanya South 

A glint of light — a silver streak, 
Cleaving through foul or fair! 
Oh, man-made dream, what do you 
In conquest of the air? 
Soon shall you, too, be discard here, 
And man, with soaring goal, 
Shall cleave the interstellar sphere 
Upon his wings of soul ! 



FEBRUARY, 19 



39 



A National Magazine fop the Gem Gutter, 
Collector and Silversmith 

SPECIAL JADE ISSUE STILL AVAILABLE 
AT 35c A COFY 
Other Back Issues 50c Each 
(There are 3) 
Send $1.85 for First Volume Complete 

Beginning- April 1st we will publish 
G Issues It year for ?2.00 
Renewals are now 

P. 0. Box 1228 Hoilywocd 28, Calif. 

LELANDE QUICK, Editor 
HARRY R. RINGWALD, Manager 



CHOICE MINERALS , . . 

Cutting and Faceting Materials 
Lapidary Equipment and Supplies 
Sheet Silver. Findings, and Wire 

Writ* for Lists 

ST Gem & Mineral Shop 

6924 Foothill Blvd. Tujunga, Calif. 



GEMS 



ROUGH a* POL /SHED 



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TNT SUP 



Yiriecc 

Lapidary Supplies 

for the 
Gem Cutting Shop 




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Grinding Wheels 
Polishing Wheels 



Abrasive Cloth 
Polishing Powders 
AbraBive Grains 



WHITE FOR COMPLETE LISTING 
OF ABOVE ITEMS AND OTHER 
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y RE E L AN D 

MANUFACTURING CI. 



S. W. Utf*raoB 5tra»t 
PORTLAND L OREGON 




By LELANDE QUICK. Editor of The Lapidary Journal 



Don Alfredo of Las Cruces, New Mexico, 
writes that he has found a new location where 
geodes and thundereggs can be found in consid- 
erable quantity and he wants to know the divid- 
ing line between a geode and an egg. Perhaps 
the remarks of a friend of ours with reference 
to this page may serve as a good illustration. 
When we write a column that is sheer propa- 
ganda about gem cutting being the blessing of 
all time he calls it a geode — because for him it's 
empty. But when we get down to some good cut- 
ting and grinding information (which we do on 
occasion) he calls it a nodule because "it's filled 
with stuff/' 

One Can hardly draw the line by saying that 
"a nodule is a filled geode" because much ar- 
gument would ensue. Broadly speaking it seems 
to be the concensus that a rock with a generous 
amount of hollow space within, lined with crys- 
tals, is a geode. If, instead of crystals, the rock 
is partially filled with agate containing fortifi- 
cation outlines and "scenes" it is a nodule, even 
if there is some hollow space. Then too, rhun- 
dereggs almost always are associated with some 
form of rhyolite. 

The best article on the subject we have seen 
was written by Orltn Bell, president of Cali- 
fornia Federation of Mineralogical societies. It 
appeared in the November, 1947, issue of the 
Mnerdogist and was ritled "Genesis of the 
Thunderegg." In Quartz Family Minerals Dake 
says that "few mineral forms have occasioned 
more questions with fewer satisfactory answers 
than geodes." An excellent chapter on geodcs 
and thundereggs (XI) is headed by a quotation 
from Phillips' Mineralogy, published in 1828, 
which says that "a geode is a hollow ball." 
We'll accept that definition and the popular one 
that a thunderegg is a solid ball — but only 
broadly. We have some hollow eggs. So it all 
comes back to the old question: which name 
came first— the geode or the thunderegg ? 



J. J. Brown of Austin, Texas, recently paid 
us a visit. We've met a lot of enthusiastic rock- 
hunters in our time but no one to beat J. J. 
Brown. He is acquainted with more dealers and 
collectors over 3 wider area than almost anyone 
and in true Texas style everyone is a "fine gen- 
tleman" as far as he's concerned. To read one of 
his mimeographed letters is an evening's treat. 
When he gets back to Austin he'll sit down and 
write a 30- page fetter and send copies of it to 
hundreds of his friends. 

Brown is sold on gemcutting and when a 
Texan is sold on anything he's really sold. He is 
vice-president of the National Vocational as- 
sociation (30,000 members) and has charge of 
his state's vocational guidance program. He 
also is president of the State Mineral Society of 
Texas. He believes that gemcutting is the ideal 
vocation for the handicapped person who must 
earn a livelihood at home. We offered him no 
argument about that. He's 100 per cent right. 
Some scheme will be worked out so such peo- 
ple will have a market for their gems. If the 
people of Jdar-Oberstcin, Germany, can do a 
tremendous business in their homes and find a 
world market for it, why can't the handicapped 
in America do the same thing? J. J. Brown will 
see rhat they get a break and if anyone wants to 



buy the products of these people we shall be 
glad to put him in touch with Mr. Brown. 
• ■ • 

With the 40 hour week here to stay we pre- 
dict that the time is not too far distant (in a 
peaceful world) when the 30- hour week will be 
coming along. After work and adequate sleep a 
man will then have about 80 hours a week for 
leisure. Unless he fills two jobs what will be do 
with them? He will employ his free time from a 
vocation with work at an avocation, mote popu- 
larly called a hobby, or a sport if it involves 
physical play. The hobby business has become 
big business but lately it has languished be- 
cause of some serious errors. 

An organization called Hobby Youth Asso- 
ciates publishes a semi-monthly newsletter for 
the business in which they put the finger on the 
weak spot — the lack of gadgets for making 
things. They say "We regretfully doubt benefit 
to the general cause of hobbies in such an ex- 
hibition as the National Craft and Science show 
now running in New York (November), 
Neither the public nor the commercial displayer 
seems to be getting a break. There are a few 
'look what we've done' displays, a lot of 'look 
what we have to sell' exhibits, but few look 
what YOU can do' demonstrations. Little has 
been done to seek out, excite, or get the atten- 
tion and interest of the people who could be 
hobby fans if they but knew how simple it is 
to get started — how much help can be made 
available — how quickly little successes, expert 
looking accomplishments, can be achieved, 

"Someone should make a survey of success- 
ful shows, find out what makes rhem successful, 
knock the hobby show apart and pur it together 
again for some other purpose than selling space 
and admissions for the purpose of selling mer- 
chandise. What we need are shows that will 
sell hobbies, create attention, interest, desire, 
enthusiasm and make people want to go and 'do 
likewise'; create new demand and not just stir 
up the old-timers." 

Substitute the word gem for hobby in the 
foregoing quotation and you have a repeat of 
whar we have said several times. Some day some 
smart lapidary equipment manufacturer is go- 
ing to forget that $1.00 a foot is high for ex- 
hibit space and he's going to New York or Chi- 
cago and pay J 5 0,00 a foot. He's going to take 
a lot of lapidary machinery with him and a lot of 
people to operate it and he's going to steal the 
show. The man with such vision is going to take 
so many orders he'll think he's hit a vug con- 
taining a half-ton of tourmalines. 

We lived for seven years in rhe canyons of 
New York. We know the problem of the apart- 
ment dweller in following any craft hobby. 
There is no place in a New York apartment for 
a shop. But the significant thing is that many 
of the present lapidary machines need no shop. 
There are faceting machines built into desks that 
are as neat as a console radio. Noise? You 
couldn't hear it above the bleating of the 
neighboring radios — and if you could who 
would be bothered by it? Those folks are con- 
ditioned to noise. Someone is going after the 
"apartment market" some day and they're go- 
ing to make a killing. And we'd like to be pres- 
ent at a national hobby show when the first 
lapidary machines are being demonstrated. The 
parrons will be bug-eyed. 



40 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 





LAPIDARY EQUIPMENT 



BOZEMAN CLUB ANNOUNCES 
1948 CONVENTION PLANS 

The Bozeman Rock club has issued an eight 
page circular detailing plans for the 19^8 con- 
vention of the Northwest Federation of Miner- 
alogies! societies which will be held September 
4-5 in the national guard armory at Bozeman, 
Montana. There is a floor-plan of the exhibit 
hall showing proposed showcase arrangement, 
and information is given for commercial exhi- 
bitors who wish to secure space, for clubs who 
plan displays and for the individual collector 
who wants to reserve space for a non-commer- 
cial exhibit. 

The circular tells about the Northwest Fed- 
eration, the Bozeman club, hotel and auto camp 
accommodations available; and gives detailed 
statistics about Bozeman and its attractions. Also 
outlined arc the mineral and scenic interests of 
the area. The circular was planned for distribu- 
tion to members of the clubs of the Northwest 
Federation, but it should be of great interest to 
any organization planning a show. 

Dr. A. D. Brewer is president of the Boze- 
man Rock club — whose official title is the Mon- 
tana Society of Natural and Earth Sciences. 
Prof. H. E. Murdock is secretary and Kenneth 
L. Sullivan has been made show chairman. The 
Bozeman society has 80 members, and is eight 
old. 



NEW SAN DIEGO SOCIETY 
ANNOUNCES OFFICERS 

The recently organized San Diego Lapidary 
society already has a membership of 12 persons 
actively interested in collecting, cutting, polish- 
ing and mounting stones. Officers of the society 
are: Marion R. Shunk, president ; Frank Dennis, 
treasurer and George W. Converse, secretary. 
Miss Helen Converse, Box 74, Route t, Spring 
Valley, California, is publicity chairman. 

Regular meetings of the club are held at 730 
p. m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the 
month in the State building, Balboa Park, San 
Diego. Membership is composed of beginners 
as well as experienced members, and many are 
taking a course in jewelry making and lapidary 
work at night school. First society field trip was 
to the Baldwin tourmaline mine near Ramona. 



FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION 
SET FOR DENVER HOTEL 

The first national convention of the Ameri- 
can Federation of Mineralogical societies, 
scheduled for June 13- IS, 1948. at Denver, 
Colorado, will be held in the Shirley Savoy ho- 
tel. Extensive field trips for both collecting and 
sightseeing have been scheduled, and there will 
be lectures, entertainment and dinners. Richard 
M. Pearl is general chairman of the conven- 
tion. 

TUCSON GROUP 'REACHES 
FIRST ANNIVERSARY 

Tucson Gem and Mineral society, which was 
started by five rockhounds, is celebrating its first 
anniversary with 60 paid-up members. The club 
elected officers for 1«^8 at the December 2 
meeting. New president is J. R. Wat wood; 
S. L. Wolf son is vice-president; Mrs. A. H. 
Murchison, secretary. Chris lberri and Larry 
Lawrence were named to the advisory board. 

The club expects to hold an exhibit in 1948, 
and plans are being made for field trips, a 
monthly bulletin and a junior society. The 
Tucson club meets first and third Tuesdays of 
every month, and visitors are welcome. 



ATTENTION SECRETARIES, 
PUBLICITY CHAIRMEN— 

News fur Gems and Minerals should 
be in office of Desert Magazine by twen- 
tieth of second month preceding date of 
publication. Material for April issue 
should be in February 20 ; material for 
May issue should be in March 20, 




UNIT 



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Power 
t-tr.d 

DIAMOND 
SAW 



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Literature to 




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LAPIDARY ENGINEERS 



Open Friday and Saturday Only 

During January and February 

On the Week Days of Monday Through Thursday We Will Be 
OPEN BY APPOINTMENT ONLY 

PHONE AND MAIL ORDERS WILL BE FILLED PROMPTLY EVERY DAY 

During this period we will prepare a new SUPPLEMENT to our 15th 
ANNIVERSARY CATALOG. This will be mailed free of charge to 
EVERYONE ON OUR MAILING LIST. 

AIRMAIL SHIPMENTS OF AUSTRALIAN OPAL are now arriving fre- 
quently. This is very fine newly mined material at reasonable prices. 
You are missing some fine stock if you don't see it. Superb facet grade 
Tourmaline, Aquamarine, and Amethyst are now in stock. 

NEW 15th ANNIVERSARY CATALOG NOW AVAILABLE — 52 pages 9x12" printed 
and profusely illustrated. It contains the MOST COMPLETE listing of EQUIPMENT, 
TOOLS, AND MATERIALS for use in GEM CUTTING and JEWELRY WORK that has 
ever been published. Send 35c for your copy today. This catalog contains many 
valuable articles containing information not elsewhere available. Worth several 
dollars to every gem cutter and. jeweler. 

BE SURE TO VISIT OUR SHOP— Our store hos been remodelled. You JUST NEVER 
SAW SO MANY HOCKS IN ONE PLACE. 100,000 SPECIMENS ARE A LOT OF 
ROCKS but that is what you will seo at our remodelled shop. PLAN A FIELD TRIP 
to our OUTDOOH MINERAL DEPT. We have MORE ROCKS THAN ROCKEFELLER. 
You'll have MORE FUN THAN AT CONEY ISLAND. 

LAPIDARY EQUIPMENT— SEE ALL THE BEST MAKES AT ONE PLACE. NO NEED 
TO SHOP AROUND. ALL MAKES OF SAW UNITS DEMONSTRATED. We will be 
pleased to FULLY EXPLAIN just what you need to GET STARTED in LAPIDARY AND 
ROCK POLISHING. JUST TWO THINGS TO REMEMBER— VISIT OUR SHOP AND 
ORDER OUR NEW HUGE 35c CATALOG. 



GRIEGER'S 



1633 E. WALNUT STREET 
PASADENA 4, CALIFORNIA 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



41 



OEM MART 



ADVERTISING RATE 
7c a Word Minimum 11,00 



SLABS — Cut thick enough to grind. Agates, 
plain colored, moss and banded. Variety of 
Jaspers, Palm Wood, Blood Stone and slabs 
cut from Friday Ranch nodules. Not priced 
according to size but for what's in them. 10 
to 25c per sq. in. Postage prepaid. If you 
don't like them send them back, get your 
money and return postage. G. C. Goodin, 
Needles, Calif. 

MINERAL SETS— 24 Colorful Minerals ( iden- 
tified) in lxl compartments— Postage paid, 
$3.50. Prospector's Set of 50 Minerals (iden- 
tified in lxl compartments in cloth rein- 
forced sturdy cartons. Postage paid $5.75, 
Elliott's Gem Shop, 26 Jergins Arcade, Long 
Beach 2, Calif. 

JADE, RHODONITE, Lapiz Lazuli. Try us for 
a fine gloss polish on these hard to finish gem 
stones. Large specimen polishing. Drilling 
any size and quantity. H. M. Simuclson, 1012 
El Camino Real, N., Salinas, Calif. 

MONTANA MOSS AGATES in the rough for 
gem cutting $1.00 per lb. plus postage. Also 
Slabbed Ague 25c per sq. in. {Minimum or- 
der $1.00). Elliott Gem Shop, 26 Jergins Ar- 
cade, Long Beach 2, California. 

FINE PAPERWEIGHTS — Pen mounts, 
matched sets, many mineral types. Featuring 
Texas fluorescent turitella. Sent on approval. 
Discount to dealers. Clay Ledbetter, 2126 
McKenzie, Waco, Texas. 

AUSTRALIAN OPAL, beautiful oval cabo- 
chons $8.00 to $35.00. Precious, semi- 
precious, synthetic ring stones. Ace Lapidary 
Co., 92-32 Union Hall St., Jamaica, New 
York. 

BEAUTIFUL ARIZONA and New Mexico 
Agate. Arizona- — Petrified Woods — Wyom- 
ing. Banded Agate, Golden Moss. Red Moss, 
Golden Fern Moss, Red and Golden Fern 
Moss, Red Banded Patterns. Painted Desert 
Agate, combination of colors, Red, Golden, 
Pink, Black and Red, Black and White, new 
find, you will like it. The above 10c sq. in,, 
will assort. Minimum 10 sq, in. Approximate 
postage please. Carnelian Agate, really nice, 
15c sq. in. Arizona Wood, all colors, 15c sq. 
in., $1,00 lb. Picture Wood 20c sq. in., $1.50 
lb. Make your next rock hunt in my yard at 
50c lb. Tons to select from. Come any time. 
Geo. C Curtis, The Agate Man, 645 First 
St., Hermosa Beach, Calif. 



Before you Fuy Any lapidary 

Wcmm 



32 pjg-wpatked&ill of helpful Upiddry Inst- 
ructions... shcu Id beinevery rotkm)4s library. 
"PiuA complete ityformarion on the -famous 
Hillt^tiist line of Ldpidary Equipment- including 1 
Mtliqu&l-affllHd'ldptM; 16" Bock Saw, f 

MillqjisUrim Saw, Hillijuist Aifo feed, r i%isl- j 
eernTOIloUoleSa^Hill^isl-Faceto^Hillibuist 
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Jcwda/uj EQUIPMENT CO* 



MINERAL SPECIMENS, slabs or material by 
the pound for cutting and polishing, RX 
Units, Fclker Di-Met Saw Blades. Carborun- 
dum wheels, Cerium Oxide, Preform Cabo- 
chons, Indian jewelry, neck chains. Be sure 
and stop, A. L, Jarvis, Route 2, Box 350, 
Watsonville, California, 3 miles S. on State 
highway No. I. 

TEXAS AGATE— The best from many beds, 
A generous assortment postpaid for J 10. El 
Paso Rock & Lapidary Supply, 2401 Pitts- 
burg St., El Paso, Texas, Phone M -1840, 

BLACK ONYX FOR CUTTERS. Black onyx 
blanks, not polished, suitable for making 
16x12 and 14x12 stones, 25c each or $2,50 
per dozen. All orders handled promptly) Also 
do special order cutting. Juchem Brothers, 
315 W. 5th St., Los Angeles 13, Calif. 

INDIAN RELICS, Curios, Coins, Minerals, 
Books, Old Buttons, Old Glass. Old West 
Photos, Weapons, Catalogue 5c. Lemley An- 
tique Store, Osborne, Kansas. 

LAUCK'S PROSPECTOR GUIDE, now in its 
4th printing, comes to you in a new- weather- 
proof cover. No trip or meeting is complete 
without this easy to carry Booklet. Sent post- 
paid for 50c. E. R. Hickey, 2323 So. Hope Sr., 
Los Angeles 7, California. 

SLABS, small for ring sets or other small stones, 
all gem material, all different $1.00 per do*. 
Larger size, average 1V2 square inches $1.50 
per doz. Postage paid. G. C. Goodin, Needles, 
Calif. 

MINERAL SPECIMENS: Micro-mount and 
Thumb-nail sizes; write todav for free list. 
J. E. Byron, Mining Engineer, 1240 Pearl 
Street, Boulder, Colorado. 

FIFTY MINERAL SPECIMENS, or over, 
boxed, identified, described, mounted. Post- 
paid $4.00. Old Prospector, Box 2IB81, 
Dutch Flat, Calif. 

BEAUTIFUL RADIATED crystal groups. 
$3.00, $5.00, $10,00. Write for price list on 
other minerals, etc. Jack the Rockhound, P. O. 
Box R6, Carbon dale, Colo. 

SPECIAL— LADIES 10K gold rings, beautiful 
design, set with one carat genuine, not syn- 
thetic, stones. Your choice of deep red garnet, 
yellow citrine-topaz, pink tourmaline or clear, 
diamond-like zircon, ooly $14.50 each, post- 
paid. State ring size and stone wanted, Idaore 
Gem Company, Weiser, Idaho. 

BE WISE, Don't buy a Trim-Saw or Gem Drill 
until you have seen the Perry Units. Sold by 
all dealers, or write L. E. Perry, 118 N. Ches- 
ter, Pasadena 4, Calif. 

EXCELLENT CUTTING MATERIALS and 
Lapidary Machines: "The Texas Lapidary 
Saw" with quickest acting rock -clamp, ant! 
the quick-change Texas Lap Unit. Request 
Circular. Exquisite gem-rock from Texas 
agate fields. Jaspagatc. colorful agatized 
wood. Slabs, one sq. inch or more, each cut 
from different rock and labeled with weight 
and price for balance of rock from which cut: 
6 slabs $1.00, 12 slabs $2.00, 24 slabs $3.00. 
Cash. Buy any or all. Rough $1.00 to S3. 00 
lb. The Texas Lapidary, 714 N. St. Peters, 
Gonzales, Texas. 

STAUROLITES (Fairy Crosses). New Mexico 
6 for $1.50; Virginia 2 for $1.50 or one cross 
with jump ring $1.50. Beautiful polished 
Arizona and Montana gem agate ring stones 
Vz" to iy 2 " long $1.50. Colorful embedded 
minerals in clear, glass-like plastic $1.50 and 
$2.00. Postage extra. MarvAnn Kasey, Box 
230, Prescott, Arizona. 



NINE FLUORESCENT MINERALS, size 2" 
plus, in compartment: box. Exclusive with us. 
$2.00 postage prepaid. Brown Mineral Re- 
search, Dept. D, 110 East Main Street, Flor- 
ence, Colorado. 

ROCKHOUNDS PARADISE. You ate invited 
to visit Goldfield, Nevada. Scene of the Big 
Gold Rush. A new strike made here lately. 
If you cannot come, why not order samples of 
Gold Ore $L00, $5.00, $10.00, up to $100.00 
each. Silver Ore 35c to $5.00. Copper, Lead 
and Zinc all three for $1.00. Opals 50c 
ounce. Best Petrified Wood $1.00 per pound. 
Other wood at 25c, 35c, 50c a pound. Grab 
boxes of many things, 15 pounds surprise 
materia! $5.00. Nevada Wonderstone 15c a 
pound. Special unusual mineral Silver and 
lead in Barite, or pure Barite 50c pound. Ex- 
tra special Seafoam Silica, like sponges in 5 
to 10 lb. pieces at 15c pound. Special bargain 
smoky topaz, several colors (obsidian) three 
pounds $2.00. Onyx, Travertine, and Marble, 
also Aragonite any one or mixed ten pounds 
$3.50. All prices F.O.B. guaranteed to please 
you. Write for anything else that might in- 
terest you. Write for wholesale prices. Mrs. 
Mariphyllis Foreman, Box 17 3, Goldfield, 
Nevada. 

GREEN ONYX (carbonate), Mexico, for book 
ends, pen bases and novelties, $1SO.OO per 
ton. Write for details. Send for our list of 
outstanding fluorescents, gem materials and 
XIii:ed minerals. Superior Minerals, Box 248, 
Saint George, Utah. 

FOR SALE: Black and gtey petrified palm with 
eyes and red plume jasper. $1.00 per lb. plus 
postage. Maida Langley, Box 331, Needles, 
California. 

AT THE DESERT RAT'S NEST, Coober 
Pedy Opal, pinpoint and blue fire. 10 carat 
Anthill Garnets, cut Moonstones. All Brazil- 
ian faceting material in stock. Geo, W. Cham- 
bers, P. O, Box 1123, Encinitas, Calif., or 
see Kizer's filling station, Hy. 101 and F St. 

ATTENTION ROCK COLLECTORS. It will 
pay you to visit the Ken-Dor Rock Roost. We 
buy, sell, or exchange mineral specimens. 
Visitors are always welcome, Ken-Dor Rock 
Roost, 4 19 So. Franklin, Modesto, California. 

MINERALS, GEMS, COINS, Bills, Old Glass, 
Books, Stamps, Fossils, Buttons, Dolls, 
Weapons, Miniatures, Indian Silver Rings 
and Bracelets, Also Mexican. Catalogue 5c. 
Cowboy Lemley, Las Cruces, New Mexico. 

TEXAS MOSS AGATES, assorted colors and 
types. Rough, $1.00 per lb. postpaid. Also 
plume by the slab. Satisfaction guaranteed. 
Witte's Rock Laberatory, Route B, Henri- 
etta, Texas. 



IUST PUBLISHED . . . 

Handbook of 
Gem Identification 

by 

RICHARD T. LLDDICOAT. ]t, 

300 Pages— 130 Illustrations and Tables 
$4.50 

For Gem Mineral Collectors and Students 

GEMOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF 
AMERICA 
Founded 1931 
541 South Alexandria Ave. Los Angeles 5 

Publishers of Dictionary of Gems and Gera- 
olojjy . . Introductory Gemology . . Famous 
Diamonds of the World . . Story of Diamonds 
* . Jewelers Pocket Reference llook . . Gems 
and Gemology (Semi-Scientific Quarterly) 
and numerous booklets pertaining to Gem- 
stones and Precious Metals. 



42 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



ALL THAT SCRATCHES GLASS 
IS NOT DIAMOND 

Desert diamonds, sparkling quartz crystals 
found in lnvo county near Little Lake, Darwin 
and Cerro Gordo have, when cut and polished, 
fooled many experts who should have known 
better, according to the Trona Argonaut, Jules 
Follenius of Randsburg explained to the Argo- 
naut a few methods of telling the true diamond 
from the false. The mark of an aluminum pencil 
is easy to remove from a diamond, but sticks to 
the Inyo variety. When dropped into water, the 
diamond easily can be seen, but the rock crystal 
is almost invisible. On a real diamond, a tiny 
drop of water can be moved about with the head 
of a pin; on the desert variety the drop will 
break and spread. 

As a final desperate test, the stone can be 
dropped in hydrofluoric acid and if it is a dia- 
mond, it will still be there. Quartz will be dis- 
solved. The rock crystal is used in industrial op- 
erations and for making beads, vases and crystal 
balls. It will scratch glass and, according to the 
Argonaut, "has been known to burn a Tronan 
now and then." One citizen is supposed to be 
holding a desert diamond on which he loaned 
S3 50 and stories are current regarding success- 
ful pawning of the quartz specimens at various 
plates. The desert diamonds also are known as 
St. George diamonds. 

• # * 

ARIZONA SOCIETY MEMBERS 
WIN AT STATE FAIR 

Twelve adult and two junior members of the 
Minetalogical Sociery of Arizona entered the 
first competitive mineral exhibit held at the 
Arizona state fair and won a first, second and 
third in the high school group, and four first 
prizes, three seconds and three thirds in the 
adult group. The society held a birthday party 
December 4, to celebrare its 12th anniversary. A 
short talk on feldspar was planned for the meet- 
ing December 18, to be given by C H. Mc- 
Donald of the U. S. bureau of public roads. Sec- 
ond scheduled feature was a discussion of the 
history of mining in Arizona by A. L, Flagg, 
held over from the November meeting. Eliza- 
beth Oxford spoke on quartz at the November 
meeting and a large group made the November 
2i field trip to New River agate bed. 

• • ■ 

Plenty of Tools — But no Rocks! 

Veteran's Hospital, Ward 14 
Livermore, California 

To Desert Staff: 

I am one of the patients in the hospital here. 
We have a very nice set of rock-cutting tools — 
but no rocks. 

Will you please mention to some of the collec- 
tors the need we have for cutting material. We 
would appreciate a little package of only a 
pound or so from anyone anywhere. We'll be 
grateful to them for anything they send. 

C. E. NAPIER 



AMONG THE 

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Torrance, Calif. 



Robert Cartter was elected president of the 
Searles Lake Gem and Mineral society for 1948. 
at the regular November meetiog. Cartter was a 
rockhound before the club was organized, and 
became a charter member. Stan Shanahan is the 
new vice-president; Harvey Eastman, treasurer; 
and Ruth L. Wilson, secretary. Eddie Reden- 
bach and John Bernhardt were chosen directors 
for a two year period and the immediate past- 
president, Clark W. Mills and the federation 
secretary, Modesto Leonardi will serve as direc- 
tors for one year. December 17 meeting of the 
society was the annual Christmas dinner to be 
held at the Trona club. Paul Lindau of Los An- 
geles gave a repeat performance of his film on 
the life of a butterfly, showed action films of 
wild birds, and a series of colored slides at the 
November meeting. 

■ * * 

Roy Wagoner was elected 1948 president of 
the Long Beach Mineralogical sociery at the 
November meeting. Florence Gordon is the new 
vice-president ; F. W. Schmidt is treasurer; and 
Mrs. Jane Fisher, 2077 Eucalyptus avenue. Long 
Beach, California, is secretary. Board members 
of the club are Bob Schiefer, Ralph Houck and 
W. L. Mayhew, retiring president. November 
field trip of the society was to Horse canyon 
where agate and jasper were collected. The an- 
nual Christmas party was scheduled for De- 
cember 10 with an exchange of rock and min- 
eral gifts among those attending. 

* • ■ 

Dr. J. W. Durham, department of paleontol- 
ogy, University of California was to lecture on 
ancient forms of life as revealed by fossil rem- 
nants, at the December 4 meeting of the East 
Bay Mineral Society, Jnc. December field trip 
was to be an excursion to Bacon hall at the 
University of California where Dr. Adolph 
Pabst had agreed to lead the group through the 
mineral and fossil sections and lecture upon 
the exhibits. Annual Christmas patty was 
planned for December 18 with potluck dinner, 
exchange of specimen presents and entertain- 
ment by members. November field trip was to 
the onyx deposits in the hills beyond Fairfield. 
Twelve cars made the trip and large quantities 
of cutting material were collected. Official navy 
pictures of the Bikini atom bomb explosions 
were shown at the Novembet meeting and Dr. 
Trask spoke and W. W, Wickett representative 
of the Tracerlab of Bosron demonstrated radio- 
active detection and measurement by 
radioactive isotopes. 



The romance of gold mining was told to 
members of the Los Angeles Mineralogical so- 
ciety at the meeting held December 18 at the 
Premiere cafeteria. Fifty members attended. 
The speaker. Past-president William Harriman, 
told members that January 24, 1948, will mark 
the centennial of John Marshall's discovery of 
gold at Sutter's mill in California. Harriman 
told stories of Joaquin Murtetta, Jedediah 
Smith, the lost Cowboy mine, and other legends 
and facts of early gold mining throughout the 
West. It was the society's Christmas meeting 
and mineral presents were exchanged, A sam- 
ple of free gold in limestone which it was esti- 
mated would run $45,000 to the ton was ex- 
hibited. 




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FEBRUARY, 194B 



43 



OFFER ORGANIZATION HELP 
FOR NEW GEM SOCIETIES 

Los Angeles Lapidary society has established 
a committee composed of past presidents whose 
purpose is to assist groups of people interested 
in lapidary work to organize new lapidary and 
gem societies. Persons interested should write to 
the society secretary, Mrs. Jean Bennett, Box 
8184 Terminal Annex, Los Angeles 54, or call 
ATIantic 2-1423, The society held its annual 
Christmas meeting December 1 with dinner and 
a Christmas box from which each member and 
guest received a gift that society members had 
contributed. 

Ted Bennett spoke on corundum stones to the 
Faceteers section of the club and there was a 
discussion of methods of cutting and polishing 
synthetic and real ruby and sapphire. At the 
Faceteer meeting Carl Wood showed a new 
light for orienting stones, and Jim Underwood 
displayed a scale he had made which will weigh 
stones and determine specific gravity. 



ZIRCONS, loose, 1st quality. Pure white. 
Special: 3 Zircons approximate total weight 
3-kts, $3.00. We can supply Zircons in all 
sizes and mountings of all types. Send order 
or write for details today. B, LOWE, Dept. 
DM, Holland Bldg., St. Louis, Mo. 




MINER ALIGHT doei all of this with such 
ores os Scheelite, Hydrozincite, Zircon, 
Willemite, Mercury and Uronium. 
See this completely portable lamp 
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Write, for bulletin D-200. 



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50 rough mixed Mexican Opals, 
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average 1" . 



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Although these are sold chiefly as 
cabinet specimens and have plenty of 
fire, many of them will work up into nice 
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Money Cheerfully Refunded if Not 
Entirely Satisfactory. 

Polished Mexican Opals and other 
gem stone cabochons on approval to 
responsible persons. 

DR. RALPH E. MUELLER 

3701 Valentine Road Kanew City 2, Mo. 



Moulton B. Smith, president of the Yavapai 
Gem and Mineral society of Fresco tt was spe- 
cial speaker at the Christmas party of the Junior 
Rockhouods, held at their headquarters, 331 
Park avenue, Prestos t. He showed colored slides 
of rock country in Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, 
Colorado and New Mexico to the 20 members 
attending. A feature of the meeting was the first 
appearance of the fluorescent lamp purchased 
through funds realized at the club's rock show 
in September, Election of officers was planned 
for the January 2 meeting, 

• • • 

Orange Belt Mineralogical society held its 
annual Christmas party December 2. Motion pic- 
tures of rock trips taken by Mr. and Mrs. Dosse 
were shown and the following club members en- 
tertained: Mrs. Clark, Peter Burk, Mrs. Mous- 
ley and Mrs. Kennedy. Mrs. Dosse and Mr, Gar- 
ner won an old fashioned spelling bee, with Mr. 
Gros acting as teacher. Mr. Thorne was pro- 
gram chairman. Each lady brought enough des- 
sert for two people aod each man brought a 
wrapped rock with his name enclosed. The 
ladies drew the rocks from a barrel and shared 
their lunch with the man whose rock they had 
drawn. Orange Belt Mineralogical society re- 
gretfully announces the death of C. S. Edwards, 
a member for many years whose special field was 
crystals. 

• ■ ■ 

At the December meeting of the Texas Min- 
eral society of Dallas, George A. Ripley showed 
color slides of his 3 1 /2-month tour of the north- 
western states. Yellowstone and Glacier na- 
tional parks. There was a Christmas tree with 
gifts for each person present. Asa Anderson is 
presidenr of the society which meets regularly 
on the second Tuesday of each month at the 
Baker hotel. 

■ a • 

Dr. John People and M. Vonson of Petaluma 
were in Trona recently collecting minerals and 
gem stones of the area for a permanent display 
which Vonson will present to the Museum of 
Natural Science at San Francisco. Dr. Leo 
Briggs, Modesto Leonardi and Ralph Merrill 
assisted the collectors in Trona. 

• a a 

"Rocks of Alaska" was the title of a talk 
given by Judge George William Fryer at the 
Christmas party of the Yavapai Gem and Min- 
eral society of Frescott. Gold was described as 
Alaska's most important mineral. In the Klon- 
dike rush as much as $1000 was found in one 
pan of placer gravel and nuggets valued from 
$1000 to $5000 each were discovered. Some sil- 
ver, antimony, mercury and platinum are 
mined in Alaska, and the Kennicott Copper 
company had an important copper mine there 
which was closed down in 1938. Members of the 
Junior Rockhounds were scheduled to be guest 
speakers at the January meeting. 



Members making the November field trip 
with the San Fernando Valley Mineral and Gem 
Society, Inc., of North Hollywood to the Kra- 
mer hills found a blanket of snow on the desert, 
but reported material both good and plentiful. 
Eighteen cars made the trip. December meeting 
of the society was to feature a porluck dinner 
and entertainment. 

a a a 

December meeting of the Coachella Valley 
Mineral society held in the Water District audi- 
torium, Indio, featured a potluck supper attend- 
ed by more than 50 members. O. A. Rush, presi- 
dent, presided. Jack Frost reported on plans for 
the club's mineral show to be held in the spring. 

a | a 

Kern County Mineral Socierv, Inc., held a 
potluck turkey dinner and Christmas party at 
the December g meeting in the Coca-Cola Bot- 
tling building. Bakersfield. November field trip 
was a tour of the Monolith cement plant at 
Monolith. 



Motion pictures wete to be shown at the De- 
cember 2 meeting of the Sequoia Mineral so- 
ciety, to be held at Parlier union high school. 
Gates Burrell described his summer collecting 
tour at the November meeting, and outlined the 
history of the areas visited. He displayed pol- 
ished specimens of Eden Valley, Wyoming, 
wood which he had collected. Field trip, No- 
vember 16, was to Madera county where under 
direction of Pete Eitzen more than 40 members 
collected crystals of chiastolite, a silicate of 
aluminum and member of the andalusite group 
of minerals. The chiastolite occurred in a car- 
bonaceous schist in long prismatic crystals hav- 
ing black inclusions of carbon arranged axially 
to form interesting patterns. Hardness was 3 to 
4, colors grey, pink, rose-red. 

a • a 

Unusual mineral deposits in Utah which were 
developed by the bureau of mines were to be dis- 
cussed at the December meeting of the Miner- 
alogical Society of Utah by P. T. Allsman, chief 
of the Salt Lake City division, mining branch, 
bureau of mines. The meeting was to be held 
in the geology building, University of Utah. 

a a a 

December meeting of the San Gorgon io Rock 
and Mineral society was a Christmas party. Paul 
Walker of Beaumont spoke on "Minerals in 
Nearby Localities" at the November meeting. 

a a a 

The three-room eighty-pupil school at Oracle, 
Arizona, won the Phelps-Dodge trophy for the 
best mineral exhibit by a grade school ar the 
Arizona state fair. Thirty-one schools entered 
the competitioo. 

• e a 

Members of the Mineralogical Society of 
Southern California were to hear William B. 
Sanborn, Yellowstone national park ranger- 
naturalist at the December 8 meeting in Pasa- 
dena public library. Sanborn's talk on the back 
country of Yellowstone national park was to be 
illustrated with kodachrome slides. Members 
were asked to bring mineral specimens from 
the Yellowstone area and adjacent states for a 
display. All communications to the society 
should be sent to the secretary, Mrs. A. G. Os- 
tergard, 3755 Sycamore avenue, Pasadena 10, 
California, 

a a a 

The Mineralogical Society of Southern Ne- 
vada is now an incorporated organization. Its 
mailing address is P. O. Box 23, Boulder City, 
Nevada. J. W. Redding is president of the 
group, D. McMillan is vice-president and Flor- 
ence McMillan is secretary- treasurer. The so- 
ciety held its Christinas banquet December 16 at 
Lake Mead Lodge. After dinner a quiz program 
patterned after "Information Please" was con- 
ducted with C. P. Christiansen, H. Fuller and 
J. Wood as the panel of experts. Mineral speci- 
mens were awarded to A. T. Newell, Mrs. R. 
McNeil, R. McNeil, John Wells, Mrs. E, L. 
Sapp, F. McMillan and D. McMillan, who 
stumped the experts, M. G. Martin, program 
chairman, was master of ceremonies. 

• • • 

Annual Christmas party of the Pacific Min- 
eral Society, Inc., of Los Angeles, was planned 
for December 12 at Hotel Chancellor. Each 
member was to bring a mineral specimen for an 
exchange of gifts, and several reels of film, 
showing some of the society's earliest field trips, 



were to be projected. 

a a * 

Colored films depicting the discovery and de- 
velopment of oil in Saudi Arabia were to be ex- 
hibited at the December 17 meeting of the 
Northern California Mineral Society, Inc., of 
San Francisco. The film was presented by Stan- 
dard Oil. Election of officers was planned for 
the same meeting held in the San Francisco pub- 
lic library assembly room. Members were to 
meet December 27 at Pidgeon Point lighthouse 
for a field trip after fossil bones on the beaches 
south of Pescadero, 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 



Dr. and Mrs. Harvey H. Nininger, who op- 
erate the American Meteorite Museum opposite 
Meteor Crater on Highway 66 in Arizona, report 
35,000 visitors during the past year. 

• • ■ 

Oklahoma Mineral and Gem society, organ- 
ized in June, 1946, now has more than 50 ac- 
tive members, according to Hubert M. Rackets, 
secretary- treasurer. 

• • * 

Richard M. Pearl at Colorado college, Colo- 
rado Springs, is editing Mineral Minutes, newsy 
bulletin of the Colorado Mineral society, which 
contains much of interest to rnckhounds in ev- 
ery issue. Pearl is author of the recently pub- 
lished Mineral Collectors Handbook, 

• » • 

Dr. Don B. Gould, professor of geology at 
Colorado college, was scheduled to speak at the 
December 3 meeting of the Colorado Mineral 
society of Denver. His subject, "The Geologic 
Past of the Pikes Peak Region," was to be illus- 
trated with slides. At the November 7 meet- 
ing, E. D. Gardner, U. S. bureau of mines, spoke 
on "Oil Shale" and Mrs. Gladys B. Hannaford, 
traveling lecturer for N. W. Ayer and Son, who 
handle DeBeers diamond company publicity, 
gave an illustrated lecture on diamonds. She 
displayed cut and rough diamonds and diamond- 
set jewelry and industrial tools. 

■ » • 

Members of the Canon City Geology club of 
Colorado have completed a first course in lapi- 
dary work and so many registered for the sec- 
ond course that Mr. Flaherty, instructor, is 
teaching four nights a week. 

• ■ • 

The bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Federa- 
tion of Mi n era logical societies, Mineral and 
Gem News of the Rocky Mountains is being sent 
to 17 societies in the Rocky mountain area. 

Colorado Springs Mineral society installed 
new officers at its November 1 4 meeting. New 
president is Lamonr Keller; vice-president, Wil- 
li ard VP, "Wulff; secretary, Miss Neola Eyer, 
Box 463, Colorado Springs, Colorado. The so- 
ciety, one of the oldest in Colorado, meets the 
second Friday of each month in the I XL cream- 
ery building. 

• ■ i 

Money taken in at an auction at the Gem Vil- 
lage, Colorado, annual rock show held on Octo- 
ber 5, went roward establishing the Gem Village 
Rock society. A large attendance was reported. 

■ • * 

El Paso, Texas, Mineral and Gem society 
plans a mineral exhibit in conjunction with the 
flower show to be held in El Paso in April. Mrs. 
R. H. Miller is secretary of the society. 

• • • 

Speaker for the December 13 meeting of Chi- 
cago Rocks and Minerals society was to be Emil 
F. Kronquist, author of Metal Craft and Jewel- 
ry; his subject, "The Arr of Jewelry Making." 
Members and friends were invited to bring jew- 
elry they had made, for an exhibit. November 
meetings featured the annual auction and a 
sound film, "10,000 Feet Deep," produced by 
Shell Oil company. Total auction receipts were 
$77.55- 

• • ■ 

Edward Lang of Santa Monica, California, 
announces that attempts to organize rhe Na- 
tional Mineral, Gem and Lapidary Dealers as- 
sociation have been abandoned for the present. 
The association has been dissolved and the pro- 
posed dealers' show scheduled for San Bernar- 
dino February 6-8, 1948, has been cancelled. 

• ■ • 

The Midwest Federation of Mineralogical so- 
cieties was organized at rhe Field museum, 
Chicago, on December 7, 1940, with the Mar- 
quette society acting as hosts. Ben Hur "Wilson 
was elected first president. The federation has 
held annual conventions each year since. 

FEBRUARY, 1948 



Jet, called black amber on the Baltic coast, is 
said to be the lightest and softest of gem stones, 
with a hardness of 1.5 and a specific gravity of 
1.3. It is a variety of coal or fossil wood. Much 
material used commercially as jet today is a 
chalcedony chemically dyed black. 

a • m 

A film on the manufacture of synthetic jewels 
used for jeweled bearings was scheduled for 
showing at the December 13 meeting of the 
Minnesota Mineral club. The two-reel picture 
was produced by the Elgin Watch company and 
one section showed the making of boules, rheir 
cutting and shaping and the making of diamond 
saws. The film was made by the company for 
use in teaching its expanded force during the 
war. The program was to be given in the Club- 
room in the Curtis hotel, Minneapolis. At the 
November meeting Dr. Willem J. Luyten spoke 
on "Pitchblende, Mother of the Atomic Bomb." 

• * I 

Nickel is used as an alloy, because it gives 
tensile strength, hardness, elasticity and resis- 
tance to chemical corrosion and rusting. It is fre- 
quently alloyed with copper and iron. 

• * i 

In the Clinton formation of rhe Silurian era in 
the Appalachian mountains, an iron ore made 
principally of fossil shells, known as fossil iron 
ore, is mined. 

■ • > 

W. A. Ross at a meeting of the San Diego 
Mineralogical society suggested the use of an 
old tite casing on the lap, to catch the mud — or 
the specimen, if it were grabbed from the hand. 
Using different sized brushes with different 
sized grits will prevent mixing. A salt shaker 
can be used to shake the grit onto the lap. To 
assure best possible polishing, he removes all 
the coarser grit with a scrub brush before apply- 
ing finer, and scrapes the wheel with a razor 
blade to remove small particles of grit embed- 
ded in it. 

• • • 

EASTERN CLUB FLANS 
SPRING MINERAL SHOW 

The New Jersey Mineralogical society of 
Plainfield, New Jersey, has scheduled a spring 
mineral exhibit for April 21 -May 4, 1948. It 
will be the society's fitst exhibit since one held 
just prior to World War II. Primary purpose of 
the show is to create interest in mineralogy and 
the allied sciences among as many people as 
possible, especially in the high schools and col- 
leges. G. R. Stilwell is president of New Jer- 
sey Mineralogical society, which is celebrating 
its tenth anniversary in June, 1948, and G. F. 
Shoemaker is club secretary. 



ANSWERS TO QUIZ 

Questions are on page 16 

1— Mt. Whitney. 

2 — The Colorado river. 

3— Death Valley. 

4 — Gila Monster. 

5— John Werherill. 

6 — Grand Canyon. 

7 — Tombstone. 

8 — Mutton. 

9— Reducing the air pressure in the 
tires. 

10— Chocolate. 

11— Cochise. 

12— Ocotillo. 

1 5 — Archeologist. 

14— Salt River valley. 

15— Rhyolite. 

16 — Copper. 

17— Utah. 

18 — -Antelope. 

19— Go to the bottom of Grand Canyon, 

20— Mexico. 





Gem lapis lazuli is a deep blue stone. Lapis 
may occur as pale blue, greenish, violet, reddish 
and green. It is a contact metamorphic mineral 
with a hardness of 5.5, occurring in limestone 
near its contact with granite. Small grains of py- 
rite frequently are enclosed. Before creation of 
an artificial substitute, powdered lapis lazuli 
constituted the paint called ultramarine. 
* * • 

When starting with a new grinding wheel, 
scratches will appear on the material being 
worked. This, William J. Bingham, of the Min- 
nesota Mineral club explains, is caused by loose 
grains of abrasive coming out of the wheel. 
They all should be out after 15-30 minutes of 
work. If a stone is allowed to chatter, vibrate, or 
dig in, it may knock more grains loose. It is ad- 
visable to take good care of the side of the wheel 
and use it only for smoothing. 



ROCK COLLECTORS ATTENTION— As you 
drive Highway 111 look for the . . . 

TRAILER ROCK STORE 

I carry the finest variety of Rock and Mineral 
specimens in the West. REMEMBER I have 
NO private collection so everything ia lor 

sale. 

THE ROCKOLOCIST (Chuckawalla Slim) 
Box 13t Cathedral City, Calif. 



HAROLD D, MARYOTT & CO. 

Miami, Arizona 

Turquoise and Chrysocolla Jewelry, cut 
stones oi all kinds, blank sterling casl 
rings, ear rings, etc. Writs for our currant 
price lists. 



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. 

45 




By RANDALL HENDERSON 

/HIS is being written the day after Christmas. My desk 
is piled high with Christmas cards — many of them from 
Desert readers whom I have never met. 1 cannot send 
personal acknowledgments to all of them — but I want all these 
good friends to know I appreciate the goodwill they have ex- 
pressed. I hope 1948 is good to all of you — good to you in terms 
of loyal friends, appreciative associates, worthwhile opportuni- 
ties, and of tolerant and generous impulses. 

# * * 

Caravans from many parts of the United States are on the 
road toward the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona and 
New Mexico and Utah. They are carrying food and clothing 
which generous Americans have contributed in response to 
widespread appeals that the Indian be saved from starvation. 

I suspect the Navajo, after years of living at the bare subsis- 
tence level, are rather bewildered by this sudden burst of gen- 
erosity on the part of their conquerors. 

I am glad Americans have been awakened to the need of thc- 
Indians, While some of the reports regarding the condition of 
the Navajo have been exaggerated, I would not criticise the 
reporters. If that is the only way Anglo-Americans can be awak- 
ened to the gravity of the Indian problem — and it appears this 
is true — then more power to those who have painted the pic- 
ture in more lurid colors than the facts justify. 

While it is a commendable thing to rush an avalanche of food 
and clothing to the needy Indians —and nearly all Navajo are 
needy according to the white man's standard — I hope those who 
have contributed so generously will not assume the Navajo 

The need on the reservation next winter will be more serious 
than it is this winter, and a year later it will be even more criti- 
cal, unless a drastic improvement is made in the economic base 
on which the Navajo culture rests. The arid lands of the present 
reservation simply will not support the increasing Indian popu- 
lation. This is a situation which must be corrected if the Indians 
are not going to become permanent subjects of charity. 

The Navajo does not want to live on relief. He is by nature 
free and rugged and independent. He wants to be a self- 
supporting citizen. But he must have greater resources than are 
now available for him if he is to make his own way — resources 
that include tools and the training necessary to use them profit- 



# * * 

Among the many suggestions for improving the lot of the 
Navajo, I think my friend Ed. F. Williams has offered the most 
constructive. (See letters page. ) On the Colorado River reser- 
vation at Parker, Arizona, are more than 75,000 acres of rich 
river bottom land which needs but to be cleared and irrigated 
from a dam already constructed, to support a population of 
35,000 people. 

ejudices will have to be overcome, and new farming 
; methods taught before the Navajo will become re- 



a rad 




But with wise planning and much patience on the part of the 
Indian authorities, I share with Ed. Williams the feeling that 
here is a practicable answer. 

* # * 

Normally I have a very high regard for the courageous 
journalism of Drew Pearson, but I suspect the Washington 
columnist has based one of his recent editorials on misinforma- 
tion. I refer to his accusation that traders on the Indian reserva- 
tion have been "piling up huge fortunes while the Navajo 
starved and the Indian Service closed its eyes," 

A few of the traders — -not many — have acquired substantial 
wealth. The great majority, after a lifetime of service on the res- 
ervation, have accumulated about enough for old age retirement, 
and no more. Theirs is not an easy life. Generally their posts are 
in remote areas where the trader and his family are called upon 
day and night for personal services ranging from feeding the 
needy to burying the dead. 

The Navajo has a keen sense of justice. He will ride to a dis- 
tant trading post to avoid patronizing a local trader who he feels 
has overcharged or done him a personal wrong. The trader who 
cannot keep the friendship of his Indian patrons does not long 
survive. And the Navajo are not too dumb to know when they 
have been mistreated. I would recommend that Drew Pearson 
read Hilda Faunce's Desert Wife to better understand the role 
of trader to the Navajo, 

* * * 

Marshal South's verse, quoted in last month's Desert, keeps 
running through my mind as the New Year starts. I hope you 
did not miss it — 

What profit the whirr of the Wheel, 
The roar of Wings, the clang of Steel — 
If, from a world in these arrayed, 
The Builders turn away dismayed, 
Weary and sick of mind. 

How well, in those five lines, has the poet of Ghost mountain 
expressed a question many of us are asking. We cannot turn 
back from the atomic age. And yet it requires greater faith than 
most of us have, to look to the future with confidence that our 
sons and daughters will live in a world of peace. 

I do not know the answer. But I am sure it will be found, not 
in the direction of more wheels and wings and atom bombs, but 
in better understanding of the human beings whose responsi- 
bility it is to manage those scientific gadgets. 

Perhaps it would be a useful idea for the scientists engaged 
in the study of material things to take a five-year recess, and 
convert their laboratories to the study of human emotions — to 
forget about the machines for a little while and develop a finer 
emotional discipline in the mortals who operate the machines. 

A human who despises another because he is a Baptist or a 
Catholic, or Jew or Negro or Share- Cropper, is no fit person 
to be trusted with the tools and weapons of this age. When we 
have learned that character, and not race or color, is the true 
basis for judging men, then no longer will ' 'The Builders turn 
lyed, weary and sick of mind." 



46 



THE DESERT MAGAZINE 




NEW GUIDE PICTURES DESERT 
PLANT AND ANIMAL PARADE 

Strikingly illustrated with 74 photo- 
graphs by Marvin H. Frost, DESERT 
PARADE by William H. Carr offers a 
practical guide to the outstanding plants 
and wildlife of the Southwestern deserts. 
Of great advantage to the average desert 
visitor is the fact that most of the things in 
which he is likely to be interested — mam- 
mals, birds, snakes,, lizards, the tortoise, 
spiders, scorpions, insects, trees, shrubs, 
wildflowers and cacti — are included in one 
volume. And the descriptions are simple 
enough to be of great help to the untrained 
observer in the visual identification of the 
desert inhabitants. 

Most of the book is taken up with para- 
graph summaries of the various species 
identified. But there is an interesting 
"Desert Foretaste" which deals briefly 
with the factors that cause a desert and the 
adaptations of animals and humans to it. 
Carr, formerly an associate curator of the 
American Museum of Natural History in 
New York and president of the Arizona 
Wildlife federation, lives in Tucson, and 
he has favored the southern Arizona desert 
in this small guide. But most of his sub- 
jects are a part of what he calls "the wild- 
life and plant parade, endless in scope, that 
marches across the deserts from Texas to 
California." 

The Viking Press, New York, 1947, 
96 pps., map. $2.50. 

• * * 

AUTHORS PROBE THE MAKING 
OF THE NAVAJO INDIVIDUAL 

From medical details of birth to the last 
rites of death, CHILDREN OF THE 
PEOPLE tells the story of the Navajo in- 
dividual and his development. Written by 
Dorothea heighten and Clyde Kluckhohn, 
the book is a companion piece to their The 
Ndvaho. But while that volume deals with 
the life, religion, language and govern- 
ment of The People, the announced pur- 
pose of CHILDREN OF THE PEOPLE 
is to bring together all that is known about 
Navajo psychology and Navajo personal- 
ity. 

The material was collected as part of the 
Indian Education Research project of the 
University of Chicago and the U. S. office 
of Indian affairs, which project is investi- 
gating the development of personalities of 
Indian children from the Hopi, Navajo, 
Papago, Sioux and Zuni tribes. Accent in 
this book is upon the earlv years of the 
child's life because the authors feel that 



personality traits are set during that pe- 
riod. More than half of the volume is 
taken up with the tests which were given to 
the Navajo children, and the results of 
those tests. 

CHILDREN OF THE PEOPLE may be 
listed as being absolutely essential to any 
complete study of the Navajo, but readers 
should understand that it was designed 
for informative rather than entertainment 
purposes. Nevertheless, there is a great 
deal of human interest in the direct quota- 
tions of the thinking of The People, and 
the plaint of Mr. Mustache on old age, for 
example, might almost have come from the 
lamentations of Job. 

Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 
Mass., 1947. 277 pps., excellent photo- 
graphic illustrations, index, bibliography, 
maps. $4.50. 

* • B 

BOOK BRIEFS . . . 

A pamphlet telling of the construction 
of various roads and the railroad into Vir- 
ginia City and of the early logging indus- 
try around Gienbrook, has been published 
by the Nevada bureau of mines and the 
Mackay school of mines under the title 
Early Engineering Work Contributory to 
the Conutock. The manuscript was written 
by the late John D. Galloway who spent 
his boyhood in Virginia City. The pamph- 
let, which sells for 75 cents, is illustrated 
with several rare photographs. 



Dr. William Kurath, head of the Ger- 
man department of the University of Ari- 
zona and Dr. Edward H. Spicer, associate 
professor of anthropology there have com- 
pleted a bulletin for the university, A Brief 
Introduction to Yaqtti, a Native Language 
of Sonora. The publication takes up Yaqui 
sounds, word formation, sentence structure 
and vocabulary. 

• # • 

Planned reissue of Ordeal by Hunger, 
by Dr. George R. Stewart, in an edition 
commemorating the centennial of discov- 
ery of gold in California has been an- 
nounced. The book tells the history of the 
Donner tragedy. 

• • > 

Initial copies of Tales of a Triumphant 
People, depicting the history of Salt Lake 
county from 1847 to 1900, were issued late 
in September by the Salt Lake county com- 
pany, Daughters of Utah Pioneers. The 
book, selling for $5, contains documents 
written by Brigham Young and other early 
Mormon leaders, and is illustrated. 

Centennial issue of the Utah Historical 
Society quarterly features the journal of 
Lorenzo Dow Young and his wife Harriet 
Page Wheeler Decker Young, members of 
the first company of Mormon pioneers, 
edited by Rev. Robert J. Dwyer. The quar- 
terly includes writings by Levi Edgar 
Young under the general title "The Spirit 
of the Pioneers." 

■ • • 

Before the Comstock. the memoirs of 
William Hickman Dolman covering the 
period 1857-1858, has been issued in 
pamphlet form as a bulletin of the Univer- 
sity of Nevada. Dr. Austin E. Hutcheson 
of the history department wrote the in- 
troduction and footnotes. Dolman is de- 
scribed as a pre-Comstock Nevada pioneer 
and leader of the miners in Gold canyon. 



The Greatest Book Ever Written of Desert Mythology is Again in Print 

JOURNEY OF THE FLAME 

By FIERRO BLANCO 

The great historical romance of Senor Don lucm Obrigon, who 
lived, adventured and observed through 100 years of Lower Cali- 
fornia history. This rare book of desert fact and fiction with its legends 
of lost treasure, told in the rich humor and earthy philosophy of Don 
Colorado, is a classic of the Southwest— a book which will never 
grow old. 



POSTPAID TO YOU $3.50 



DESERT CRAFTS SHOP — — — — — El Centre California 



FEBRUARY, 1948 



47 



— Photograph by Alice M. Hart man, Indio, Calijorma. 

Candy of the Palms , , . dates and coconut 

Blended date and coconut meats . . . ready minced in small pieces . . . 
a perfect natural candy to "nibble on" . . , delicious in fruit salads ... a 
typical desert confection, highly nutritious and a quick energy tid-bit. A delight- 
ful gift novelty. 

Attractively packaged in fibre cans and moisture sealed in amber 

cellophane. 

1 - pound can $ 1.25 

3 -pound can 3.50 

12 one-pound cans . • 13.20 

(Piices delivered in U.S.A. Case lots by express) 

RUSS NICOLL, Owner Valerie Jean Date Shop THERMAL, CALIFORNIA 

— — — i — . — _.. „— _ — — — . —